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

Infestissumam

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that PL statement regarding "assurances" from the Saudis is the ultimate insult to people's intelligence.

what a terrible day for the PL and football in general. Not that it's any surprising, but even then, allowing this murderous regime to sportswash themselves through owning a PL club is a completely new low. Shame on the league.
 

Dumbstar

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Conte first manager up then? By January?

That's him ruled out as Ole's appointment.
 

Andycoleno9

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You seem to be unaware that United have taken plenty of 'Saudi's dirty money'. Saudi Telecom sponsored United for many years.

Aeroflot are currently a sponsor. The state airline of another state who go in for murdering their opponents.

Taking the moral high ground where football is concerned is a difficult business.
It doesn't work like that. We take "a little money". It is ok. But to take a lot is not ok.

Joking aside, i find also amusing all this outrage with Saudis in Newcastle and taking some moral ground while lots of clubs have "dirty money".
 
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With the wages and fees currently paid by City, Chelsea and United it's going to be interesting to see how big Newcastle have to spend to convince talent to head to the North East.

genuine question, Is FFP gone now?

From a United perspective we could shift some dead wood, like Martial, to Newcastle now.
 

Shane88

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Don't know what the problem is? They've said Saudi Arabia won't control Newcastle.


Can't wait to hear what Neville and Carragher say about this.
They'll have nothing to say. They'll be under strict orders from Sky not to mention anything about dissolving journalists because it reflects poorly on The Best League in the World™.
 

Adam McNeill

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Football is over. Chelsea and City accelerated it's death, city in particular as they were an absolute nothing club. Chelsea at least had put in the groundwork of becoming a competitive team.

If you're a team like Brentford or villa or any club that's been working so hard to build and progress then this is like being booted off the 'pyramid' and being told to be grateful to be let back on. Newcastle are a floundering shambles of a club and through no sporting merit at all are about to overtake clubs who have had projects in place for years with blood sweat and tears in it.

Abu Dhabi v Saudi Arabia. They should be made to change names to reflect reality. They're not football clubs anymore.
Couldn't agree more, football has lost its soul.

Give it 25 years and I think e-sports football (fifa) will have taken over
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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It's bizarre seeing them celebrate this as a win. Going from stingy, tight fisted capitalist to a regime as abhorrent as the Saudis doesn't really sound like they're "getting their cub back". They've just handed the keys to much worse people. But human rights atrocities won't matter if they're splashing the cash or whatever.

Not sure I could keep following United if they had come for us instead. I definitely wouldn't be celebrating it either way.
 

djembatheking

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It's bizarre seeing them celebrate this as a win. Going from stingy, tight fisted capitalist to a regime as abhorrent as the Saudis doesn't really sound like they're "getting their cub back". They've just handed the keys to much worse people. But human rights atrocities won't matter if they're splashing the cash or whatever.

Not sure I could keep following United if they had come for us instead. I definitely wouldn't be celebrating it either way.
Simba?
 

Dans

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Time to seek out your local amateur club and spend more of your time and money there.
 

Deery

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Kid who can't be older than 13 drinking a can of Carling live on Sky Sports :wenger:
Funny that because Saudi have a prohibition on alcohol and bought fecking Newcastle United..
 

tomaldinho1

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Don't know what the problem is? They've said Saudi Arabia won't control Newcastle.



They'll have nothing to say. They'll be under strict orders from Sky not to mention anything about dissolving journalists because it reflects poorly on The Best League in the World™.
Genuinely is sickening, I feel most of their fans simply don't want to know anything about Saudi and that makes it easier to celebrate. To be honest many on the caf were saying they'd love the Saudis to buy us as well. Some things are just much much bigger than football:
Everything you need to know about human rights in Saudi Arabia 2020 - Amnesty International Amnesty International
 

Lee565

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This will be alarm bells for united who have become complacent in being happy with settling for just top 4 football and now we will have a another top 4 contender within a season or two to contend with.
 

Bocca9978

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Just another club I won’t bother watching. Same as city and Chelski.

Another nail in footballs coffin.
 

FireballXL5

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They'll dancing in the streets of Yemen tonight, if the Saudis haven't already blown them to bits.
 

Borussin

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This a million times over.

Shame on the PL to allowing such owners, as it was when they allowed Man City to be bought by Abu Dhabi.

All for the sake of sports washing. Just disgusting.
 

SilentWitness

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Teja

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It's like our fanbase is in denial about how much we spend ourselves :lol:
Current situation doesn't matter particularly because ultimately we have a cap on our spending ability and City don't.

If a couple of big deals go bad for us, it'll set us back a few years at the very least (e.g., DDG, Sanchez). Whereas if Grealish doesn't work out for City, they don't have to suffer the consequences for 5 years, they'll just throw a bit more money at the problem and it'll go away.

Imagine we're in the position City are now and we win 4/5 titles the next 5 years.. City can / will go crazy on their spending until they reach the top. If roles were hypothetically reversed and City have the squad we have now, they would've happily signed a couple of CMs and a RB this year and won't have to stagger their transfers and slowly build up the squad for financial reasons.

Fading into irrelevance like Arsenal did is basically impossible for City where as it's reasonably probable for us.
 

wise_old_man

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Basically means Arsenal and Spurs will become permanent mid-table clubs in the future and Everton, Leicester and West Ham will never break into the top 4.
Funny you mentioned about Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester, West Ham...etc while our own top 4 spot is in serious danger after Newcastle becomes the next City/PSG.
City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool. How can we break into top 4 like this?
 

Deery

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So it’s gone full circle and United are now the good guys?
 

Pickle85

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You seem to be unaware that United have taken plenty of 'Saudi's dirty money'. Saudi Telecom sponsored United for many years.

Aeroflot are currently a sponsor. The state airline of another state who go in for murdering their opponents.

Taking the moral high ground where football is concerned is a difficult business.
This is a false equivalency. It's like saying the chief financial adviser that organises washing el chapo's money is equally as culpable as the person that works at a launderette that happens to be used to wash a small part of that drug empire's money. The two aren't comparable.
 

Matthew84!

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Why are people surprised? Always going to happen, they'll plough Billions into Newcastle making the Premier league even more competitive.
Not sure who buys Man Utd now having to go up against all that.
 

owlo

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Just glad it wasn't us. I'd rather keep the Glazers.
 

Wolf1992

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What league is good to watch and is not a nasty billionaires’ cockfight?

Asking for a friend.
Low tier leagues that nobody watch outside of their own countries.

EPL has become a prisoner of its own success.

Its not EPL anymore, now its RICH FOREIGNERS PREMIER LEAGUE.

Remember Capitalism always come with a downside, and the free market is NOT free.
 
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Borussin

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Have they? :confused:

that’s completely mad, as their club is futher away from being theirs, it is now just a vehicle to sports wash. And they as fans are already doing the sports washing for Saudi Arabia as their behaviour on social media shows.
 

Offsideagain

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They will get some obscene money from ‘Sponsors’ a la City. Gary Cook, before he resigned as CEO at City managed to get a £500 m sponsorship deal from his former employer, Nike. A plane buff mate of mine said the Saudis are looking to revamp their airline so you can imagine a conversation that goes like this. ‘ Hello, is that Boeing?’. ‘I’m looking to buy 100 new planes would you be interested’. ‘Er, yes’. ‘Good, I would like one in Newcastle United colours which would look good if Boeing sponsored the team’. ‘How much do you want’?.
 

rotherham_red

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Funny you mentioned about Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester, West Ham...etc while our own top 4 spot is in serious danger after Newcastle becomes the next City/PSG.
City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool. How can we break into top 4 like this?
Liverpool are more at risk than we are. We earn enough to compete with these lot even with the Glazers handbrakes being pulled.

Liverpool don't.

You only have to look at the wealth of the owners of the other clubs in the PL to see that the wealth of an owner doesn't translate to spending power.
 

Teja

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They will get some obscene money from ‘Sponsors’ a la City. Gary Cook, before he resigned as CEO at City managed to get a £500 m sponsorship deal from his former employer, Nike. A plane buff mate of mine said the Saudis are looking to revamp their airline so you can imagine a conversation that goes like this. ‘ Hello, is that Boeing?’. ‘I’m looking to buy 100 new planes would you be interested’. ‘Er, yes’. ‘Good, I would like one in Newcastle United colours which would look good if Boeing sponsored the team’. ‘How much do you want’?.
They can just ask Aramco to do it. 1bn / 10 year kit sponsorship deal should be enough.

Nike / Adidas just chase the best players, so as long as you have some marketable players like Neymar / Pogba playing for you, they'll pay out the big bucks. This can be all above board assuming you get your first couple of superstars.
 

wise_old_man

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This will need to be a long term project investing in young future stars ala Leicester. Even if they get everything right it’s still years before they’re even close to top 4. Unless FFP rules change or they break them. Significantly through highly inflated sponsorships. Let’s be honest - those rules were put in place championed by the likes of ourselves and Liverpool to stop City happening again. Or at least to make it difficult. And they make it very difficult as Everton are finding. Everton literally can’t spend any more than they have done regardless of how much their owner wants or has to spend. That’s the limit under current rules.
Remember what City did? Newcastle would just break the FFP. You think state-owned clubs are afraid of FFP in this day and age?
They will laugh down their noses. When you have that much money, you can pretty much do anything. City did this when they made a mockery of FFP.