Newcastle United now owned by the PIF | PL receives "legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control NUFC" ;)

[Hammondo]

Daune: you have impressive cojones to end a sanctimonious vomit of a post like that discussing self awareness. That level of irony might be fatal.

He makes some good points. I don't agree with all of it, but in general hes right.

 

[stevoc]

To me it's silly. Newcastle has hit the jackpot. It's absurd for a lot of newspapers and journalists to froth at the mouth as lots of them encouraged the illegal invasion of Iraq. An invasion that has destabilised the whole world.
No reason to blame the fans and to be honest it's hypocritical for fans of other clubs to blame them.

Which journalists?

 

[stevoc]

Sorry Steve, you can’t be throwing any stones now. Just accept that it’s perfectly fine to stone homosexuals and abuse Women, god don’t you understand tolerance…

Yeah I've no idea what I was thinking having an opinion on something.

 

[stevoc]

As soon as the PL and the useless FA approved Abramovich buyjng Chelsea, then they gave carte blanc to every dodgy regime in the world. The Thai that bought CITEH was a convicted felon and they still waved it through so Sheik Mansour and Abu Dhabi strolled in even though their human rights as just as bad as the Saudis. It’s laughable that anyone should mock the Toon fans that have endured 14 years of bugger all investment in players. At least the Glazers have coughed up for all the managers we’ve had. City fans are very quite of course ha ha. On the subject if money, the Saudi royal family are beyond worth, it’s the investment company that has £345billion to spend. As stated elsewhere, they are in it to make money, unlike Mansour who’s in it for sport washing.

They're being mocked because they're out wearing tea towels on their heads, waving Saudi flags and writing welcoming love letters to the Saudi regime.

No one has a problem with being happy to get rid of Ashley (who was a tyrant according to them ). But on the other hand they don't have to be out celebrating a murderous regime. Its embarrassing.

 

[rotherham_red]

Correct. Their bending over and wild celebrations after the takeover has to be one the most absurd and downright humiliating things ever seen in a fan culture. No one has ever done it in a similar manner and only for the sake of future trophies/shiny players that may come their way with zero caring for anything else.

Should be rightly riduculed for that.

"We have our club back" chants with Saudi flags?* Show some dignity ffs.

*would say the same thing if it was an American flag instead before whataboutists jump in

City did it as well, but they've always been a classless lot so it didn't surprise me.

The Geordies though. I honestly thought they were cut from a different cloth.

On the takeover as a whole, honestly I'm not that fussed. It's increasingly the way of the world unfortunately and it was borderline inevitable that a Newcastle or Everton would be bought in this manner.

The talk of it displacing us is a tad too farfetched for me though. Look at the wealth rankings of owners in the PL. The Glazers are barely in the top 6, with the owners of Wolves, Arsenal, City, Villa, Chelsea all comfortably richer. We'll still compete owing to the weight and cache of the club and the threat of fan unrest occurring if they don't.

Tbh the days of any club dominating the league is well and truly gone.

 

[kouroux]

To me it's silly. Newcastle has hit the jackpot. It's absurd for a lot of newspapers and journalists to froth at the mouth as lots of them encouraged the illegal invasion of Iraq. An invasion that has destabilised the whole world.
No reason to blame the fans and to be honest it's hypocritical for fans of other clubs to blame them.

If the same newspapers and the same exact journalists supported the Iraq invasion then yeah you'd have a point.
I don't get this logic that one cannot criticize something because his company or his profession didn't do the right thing years ago.
If this is the process then who has the right to actually criticize things ?

 

[The Brown Bull]

I found it profoundly depressing to see hordes of Geordies celebrating the take over of their club by the Saudis.Bit like hordes of labour voters voting Tory in the last election.
The age of idiocy.

 

[matt10000]

Haha yes, if you didn’t watch football focus yesterday, have a watch on bbci player at 3.07 three minutes 7 seconds in, listen to what the Newcastle fan says “Mike Ashley he’s ran a tyranny at this club”.

This clip will be on “Have I Got News For You” this Friday.

 

[tomaldinho1]

There are much easier ways to launder their reputation. That has always been a silly argument. For every convert to the House of Saud's ways there'll be 10 fans suddenly turned foreign policy critic of the regime. If bad publicity is bad, they were better off avoiding the spotlight and going about business as usual with the UK government (who's citizens en masse didn't give a feck about such relations, conveniently until they bought a football club)

This is a poor take because what better ways are there to launder your reputation? Sports is literally the best way to do it. Saudis will try and buy every big boxing match, they’re now in the PL, pretty sure they just got an F1 race on the calendar.

The entire aim of sports-washing is normalisation through repeated exposure and then letting time do the rest. What better way is there than buying into popular global sports?

 

[Sviken]

Whole thing is absurd to me. What kind of joy are Newcastle fans going to get from winning the league by playing Football Manager with cheat codes? I just do not get it. Football has become such a disgusting business.

 

[adexkola]

This is a poor take because what better ways are there to launder your reputation? Sports is literally the best way to do it. Saudis will try and buy every big boxing match, they’re now in the PL, pretty sure they just got an F1 race on the calendar.

The entire aim of sports-washing is normalisation through repeated exposure and then letting time do the rest. What better way is there than buying into popular global sports?

The Saudis don't give a feck about what me or you think about them. Our governments are in bed with them (oil, weapons, etc), they already have lobbyists in our capitals, we sided with them against Yemen, they're buying real estate in London and New York with straight cash... What changes when Ian from Newcastle suddenly argues they actually didn't drag Khashoggi into an embassy to chop him up mob style?

Plus, assuming that reputation laundering is a thing, this only works mostly on Newcastle fans, on other fans it'll have a negative impact. I'm sure there are people who didn't know about Yemen and their crucifixions of gay people until this moment. Wouldn't they have been better off keeping quiet and having their way with our governments instead of drawing more light on their abuses?

That's what I genuinely don't understand.

 

[berbatrick]

The Saudis don't give a feck about what me or you think about them. Our governments are in bed with them (oil, weapons, etc), they already have lobbyists in our capitals, we sided with them against Yemen, they're buying real estate in London and New York with straight cash... What changes when Ian from Newcastle suddenly argues they actually didn't drag Khashoggi into an embassy to chop him up mob style?

Plus, assuming that reputation laundering is a thing, this only works mostly on Newcastle fans, on other fans it'll have a negative impact. I'm sure there are people who didn't know about Yemen and their crucifixions of gay people until this moment. Wouldn't they have been better off keeping quiet and having their way with our governments instead of drawing more light on their abuses?

That's what I genuinely don't understand.

exactly.

last month this passed without comment by a relevant politician:

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-fair-are-on-foreign-office-human-rights-list

Six nations listed by the Foreign Office as “human rights priority countries” have been invited by the British government to send delegations to Europe’s biggest arms fair, which begins in London’s Docklands on Tuesday.

Among those invited is Saudi Arabia, to which the UK has allowed the export of £20bn of arms that could be used in the war in Yemen, a bloody seven-year conflict that the UN says has caused the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

even without the massive PR benefits of owning one of 20 PL clubs, they were welcomed into the heart of a western liberal democracy and happily bought weapons.

 

[matt10000]

Plus, assuming that reputation laundering is a thing, this only works mostly on Newcastle fans, on other fans it'll have a negative impact. I'm sure there are people who didn't know about Yemen and their crucifixions of gay people until this moment. Wouldn't they have been better off keeping quiet and having their way with our governments instead of drawing more light on their abuses?

That's what I genuinely don't understand.

In England their name will be normalised by constant exposure.

Elsewhere, EPL is a global brand and fans in other countries will not have the same hatred., allegiances with other teams etc.

 

[Marwood]

It is a difficult situation. All those who are upset with the takeover have made really good points on how morally wrong all this process was. But I also understands the guy's point of view, Blair won the elections in 2005 despite the fact he raged a war and was behind the death of hundreds of thousands based on a lie, he was cause of the suffering of an entire nation of 30m people together with his overlord Bush. Now I understand that people do not make these war decisions, but how can you go and revote for the same person after all of that?

Is it though? Is it even a "situation?"

They are some very random dots you're connecting. Blair being voted in by a minority of the population means other random people 16 years later can't have an opinion on the Saudis buying a football club?

I'd consider myself liberal but I sometimes understand why the right is fed up. Liberals have twisted themselves into such a pretzel of self loathing they can't bring themselves to give an opinion anymore. Even on issues as obvious as this.

 

[Withnail]

The hypocrisy and selective outrage from United fans is actually getting funnier if that were at all possible.

The Saudi takeover of Newcastle is only the natural progression of the globalisation of the Premier League over the last thirty odd years, nothing more and not particularly surprising, and just who were the prime movers behind that globalisation I wonder.

I don't remember any United fans complaining about Ed Woodward signing sponsorship deals in whichever country with no footballing history was flavour of the month or the pre-season tours of China or America or wherever, just as long as you could sign Paul Pogba or the latest Instagram superstar.

Maybe if the 99.9% of you with no connection whatsoever to Manchester had actually started supporting your local team rather than the team which just coincidentally happened to be the richest and most successful on the planet then none of this would have happened, who knows.

But if you're really looking for someone to blame for wealthy oligarchs or nation states, however reprehensible, taking over English football clubs as opposed to what just comes across to the rest of us as a rather salty kind of jealousy, then a bit of self-awareness wouldn't go amiss.

Just saying.

Amazing. It's all our fault

 

[matt10000]

When Keegan took over and Newcastle won the league and promotion, there was romance and soul at the club. People were swinging off lamp posts all over The Quayside and Big Market

When they win the EPL for the first time on cheat mode it just won’t be such an achievement.

 

[RedTiger]

When they win the EPL for the first time on cheat mode it just won’t be such an achievement.

It won't seem an achievement to non geordies but I guarantee that the whole city goes on a 2 week bender.

 

[Withnail]

Yea Scottish people don't have the same history as the English given that they were very close to wanting to be removed from the GB (similar for @Pogue Mahone who is Irish). I should apologize for equating you two with English people, for whom I still feel criticizing the Saudi regime, while not acknowledging the problems they have caused throughout the world.

Again, my point isn't that you can't criticize, but then don't act like your government is much better than them.

It's still a false equivalence. The British and American governments don't own any football clubs so the hypocrisy argument is nonsense.

The idea being bandied around that anyone criticizing the Saudis somehow fully supports US or UK foreign policy, is also ridiculous.

 

[stevoc]

It won't seem an achievement to non geordies but I guarantee that the whole city goes on a 2 week bender.

They'll have the Tea Towels and Saudi Flags washed and ironed in anticipation for the day.

 

[Sviken]

They'll have the Tea Towels and Saudi Flags washed and ironed in anticipation for the day.

Probably at the tune of this:

 

[Foxbatt]

If the same newspapers and the same exact journalists supported the Iraq invasion then yeah you'd have a point.
I don't get this logic that one cannot criticize something because his company or his profession didn't do the right thing years ago.
If this is the process then who has the right to actually criticize things ?

Look at Daily Mail and all the right wing newspapers and TV stations.

 

[stevoc]

Look at Daily Mail and all the right wing newspapers and TV stations.

But is it the same journalists?

Because if it isn't then you don't have much of a point, do you.

 

[matt10000]

It won't seem an achievement to non geordies but I guarantee that the whole city goes on a 2 week bender.

Can’t argue with that, they tend to go on a two week bender………………every two weeks

 

[Jim Beam]

City did it as well, but they've always been a classless lot so it didn't surprise me.

Don't remember them having a title like celebration, but it was in 2008 and maybe my mind is tricking me. Tbf they can't have a title like celebration even when they win it, so nothing strange.
As you say they are something else, seen some of them questioning FFP now which is beyond hilarious.

On the takeover as a whole, honestly I'm not that fussed. It's increasingly the way of the world unfortunately and it was borderline inevitable that a Newcastle or Everton would be bought in this manner.

The talk of it displacing us is a tad too farfetched for me though. Look at the wealth rankings of owners in the PL. The Glazers are barely in the top 6, with the owners of Wolves, Arsenal, City, Villa, Chelsea all comfortably richer. We'll still compete owing to the weight and cache of the club and the threat of fan unrest occurring if they don't.

Tbh the days of any club dominating the league is well and truly gone.

Same. From a football perspective, I don't think it is that easy and will take some effort from them to close the gap. Even then we will always have a certain advantage because of our stature and if we can't use it, it will be our fault.
There is certainly no jealousy on my part, that's for sure. If anything, am glad we won't be bought and used by them in the same way considering some roumors before.

 

[Coops73]

Halal the lads

 

[kouroux]

Look at Daily Mail and all the right wing newspapers and TV stations.

But is it the same journalists?

Because if it isn't then you don't have much of a point, do you.

This. It's as simple as that.

 

[Giggsyking]

Is it though? Is it even a "situation?"

They are some very random dots you're connecting. Blair being voted in by a minority of the population means other random people 16 years later can't have an opinion on the Saudis buying a football club?

I'd consider myself liberal but I sometimes understand why the right is fed up. Liberals have twisted themselves into such a pretzel of self loathing they can't bring themselves to give an opinion anymore. Even on issues as obvious as this.

What I meant by a difficult situation, is the accusation of the other poster that people are selective with their moral borders. Not the Saudi takeover of Newcastle. Blair was not voted by a minority by the way, but 10m people. Anyhow, I think we should not continue this discussion here because it will be far from the thread.

 

[rotherham_red]

Don't remember them having a title like celebration, but it was in 2008 and maybe my mind is tricking me. Tbf they can't have a title like celebration even when they win it, so nothing strange.
As you say they are something else, seen some of them questioning FFP now which is beyond hilarious.



Same. From a football perspective, I don't think it is that easy and will take some effort from them to close the gap. Even then we will always have a certain advantage because of our stature and if we can't use it, it will be our fault.
There is certainly no jealousy on my part, that's for sure. If anything, am glad we won't be bought and used by them in the same way considering some roumors before.

Yeah I'm kinda in a similar boat. Tbh knowing what I know about the Saudis and how they go about things, I honestly think it will all end up as a bit of a damp squib, relatively speaking.

 

[stevoc]

What I meant by a difficult situation, is the accusation of the other poster that people are selective with their moral borders. Not the Saudi takeover of Newcastle. Blair was not voted by a minority by the way, but 10m people. Anyhow, I think we should not continue this discussion here because it will be far from the thread.

Which surely constitutes a minority of the UK population circa 2005, no?

 

[stevoc]

Don't remember them having a title like celebration, but it was in 2008 and maybe my mind is tricking me. Tbf they can't have a title like celebration even when they win it, so nothing strange.
As you say they are something else, seen some of them questioning FFP now which is beyond hilarious.

Yeah I can remember it being a bit more muted for City in 2008 but then they do have less fans, still a few Tea Towels though.

Spoiler: Tea Towels

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

It won't seem an achievement to non geordies but I guarantee that the whole city goes on a 2 week bender.

Why would they reduce their usual drinking hours when they've won the league?

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

Which surely constitutes a minority of the UK population circa 2005, no?

It absolutely does.

I still remember him on telly and thinking "I don't believe a word he says", it felt like other countries had talked him into it and he'd wanted to remain friends with the cool kids.

Amazed not tried as a war criminal.

This "your country invaded Iraq" is such a stupid argument?

 

[RedTiger]

Why would they reduce their usual drinking hours when they've won the league?

 

[stevoc]

It absolutely does.

I still remember him on telly and thinking "I don't believe a word he says", it felt like other countries had talked him into it and he'd wanted to remain friends with the cool kids.

Amazed not tried as a war criminal.

This "your country invaded Iraq" is such a stupid argument?

Indeed but stupid ill thought out arguments are a regular feature of these threads.

 

[Jippy]

Look at Daily Mail and all the right wing newspapers and TV stations.

What has various newspapers' differing stances on the second Iraq war 18 years ago got to do with distaste for the Newcastle takeover?
Stop wumming.

 

[sglowrider]

Halal the lads

The new al-toon army.

 

[Tyrion]

Aren't there any english billionaire interested in Football?

Why most of these billionaires spending cash in EPL are foreigners?

Because its extremely difficult to make money out of football without running it in a very negative way (e.g. The Glazers, Mike Ashley). The only people who are motivated to have a football team are those with reputations to launder.

 

[Jippy]

Because its extremely difficult to make money out of football without running it in a very negative way (e.g. The Glazers, Mike Ashley). The only people who are motivated to have a football team are those with reputations to launder.

The Glazers have spent stacks on players, it's nonsense to compare them to Ashley.

 

[Tyrion]

To me it's silly. Newcastle has hit the jackpot. It's absurd for a lot of newspapers and journalists to froth at the mouth as lots of them encouraged the illegal invasion of Iraq. An invasion that has destabilised the whole world.
No reason to blame the fans and to be honest it's hypocritical for fans of other clubs to blame them.

So some journalists were pricks 20 years ago on an unrelated issue so no-one can complain about this? Great.

In other news, criticism of the Glazers is immoral because of the widespread sexual harassment that led to the #MeToo movement.

 

[Tyrion]

The Glazers have spent stacks on players, it's nonsense to compare them to Ashley.

United spends plenty of money on players. The Glazers don't invest anything. What is being spent is what's left of Uniteds wealth after the owners take their cut. In that sense, they're similar.