Newcastle takeover puts money before morals with Saudi-led buyout

As fans danced, drank and sang into the night outside St James’ Park, it was hard to grudge them respite from Mike Ashley’s torrid regime at Newcastle United.

St James' Park is welcoming Saudi-led investment

The future will be markedly different and that’s what sparked the celebrations on Thursday evening. Lavish spending on the world’s best players is predicted, although that does not mean Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund [PIF] is an owner worth shouting about.

There is something deeply chilling about English football welcoming a state which executes people and ignores basic human rights. They stand accused of dismembering humans and piling body parts into bin-bags to be tossed out with the trash.

Newcastle supporters glad to see the back of Ashley were willing to take almost anyone as a replacement. Perhaps that has clouded their judgment. After all, their club has become megarich overnight in this £300million buyout.

It is funded by wealth which exceeds the Abu Dhabi United Group behind Manchester City and the Qatar Investment Authority in charge of Paris Saint-Germain.

The Saudi PIF is worth £320bn in comparison to the Qatar IA’s £220bn which has helped bring Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi to Paris. Sheikh Mansour at £23bn is a relative pauper by comparison as he tries to buy City the Champions League.

The term “sportswashing” has been coined for countries or states using sports clubs to mask human rights abuse and improve the image of their country. It was trending on social media for a reason on Thursday.

Football is clearly massive business and a potentially useful PR vehicle, as more and more of the world’s richest organisations are discovering. The vetting process and absent morals in English football rightly draw concern from those willing to look beyond the bluster.

Is it right to ignore an organisation’s apparent bone-sawing of people, or the subsequent lobbing into the bin, just because they might pay for Erling Haaland to score a hat-trick in the Gallowgate End?

Some will argue it is or the PIF wouldn’t be in place. With the fit and proper tests circumvented, English football’s newest cash kings are ready to fund an overhaul in Newcastle which is as cloudy as fog on the Tyne.

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