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Newcastle beheading: on Saudi acquisition deal
Fans are fed up with the previous owner and are willing to ignore moral considerations, while the UK government has helped promote the deal for fear of damaging relations between the two countries.
It went to PSG and Manchester City, and it will happen to Newcastle as well - it is no longer a football club but a political tool
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Newcastle
Saudi Arabia
Michael Yochin
Sunday, October 10, 2021, 1:00 p.m.
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"We want to get the honor and hope back, and see little gestures that will show us that these people care." So wrote Harry Sabil, a young fan of Newcastle United, who tried to explain in the Guardian pages the mood in the city after the sale of the club to the Saudi fund led by Regent Muhammad bin Salman - and it remains to be seen how this way of thinking can be degenerated.
Get the honor back? Well, many Newcastle fans have rejoiced in the last two days for "getting the club back," after 14 years of Mike Ashley's rule. One cannot argue with the fact that Ashley despised the fans, treated them with contempt and earned the hatred towards him honestly. Along the way it is worth mentioning that he himself bought the team in 2007 from Freddie Shepherd, who was no less hated - and then Ashley's arrival was received with an unbridled burst of joy, until it became clear to fans that it was very early.
For Ashley, Newcastle was merely a means of promoting its chain of stores, and it did trample on its dignity, but is turning the club into an unfortunate political tool in the hands of a totalitarian regime is the way to bring it back?
Do the fans really get the club back in their hands because sheikhs find it appropriate to pour money into it in order to win more proper PR?
Could there be a more distorted logic?
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To the full article
Buy the group from an equally hated owner.
Mike Ashley (Photo: GettyImages, Richard Heathcote)
The fans - useful idiots
Newcastle fans want to feel that the Saudis care about them. For it is clear that Ben Salman has for years been preoccupied with obsessive thoughts on how to please the poor residents of the North East of England, whom the cruel Ashley abused. The Saudi regime cares about them just as much as the Qatari regime cares about Paris Saint-Germain fans, and just as the emirates of the Emirates care about Manchester City fans. They see them as useful idiots who applaud their transparent - but very successful - plot to gain positive recognition in the international arena through investment in football.
Qatar has a murderous regime that supports terrorism, but it has a nice face in the form of Paris President Saint-Germain Nasser al-Khalafi, and he also gets to host the World Cup. They prefer that instead of the real activity of this regime, people will concentrate on Neymar insisting on kicking penalties and always being injured on his sister's birthdays, and Real Madrid trying to take from them Killian Ambape - because these are the biggest troubles of the Qatari government.
Over the years, they have also recruited to the club figures with a seemingly perfectly clean image that arouse pure admiration, like Thiago Silva and Edinson Cavani.
Now they even brought in Leo Messi to serve the sheikhs.
It is wonderful, and everything is done, of course, out of sincere concern for the people of Paris.
The Emirates went even further - they built a world-wide empire, with branches in New York, Melbourne, Montevideo and Mumbai, and promoted a strategy based on Barcelona-style Catalan football.
To this end, key figures from the Barcelona management, Fran Soriano and Chiki Bagirstein were recruited, and later also Pep Guardiola to the position of coach.
They evaded creative exercises from the fair play rules to make a mid-sized club one of the strongest teams in the world, and now the first association of football fans with the Emirates is the dedication of Kevin de Brauna's artist.
The method - to recruit characters with a clean image.
Al-Khalafi with Messi (Photo: Reuters)
From Mussolini to Putin
There is a term for this phenomenon that is not easy to translate into Hebrew - sportswashing. It is not really new, and certainly not limited to countries from the Persian Gulf. To this category can be attributed the 1934 World Cup in Italy by Benito Mussolini and the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler. Roman Abramovich's takeover of Chelsea, apparently at the behest of Vladimir Putin, could also be on the list - and the Russian regime is very active in the football arena in general. Government conglomerate Gazprom not only bought Zenit, but also sponsors the Champions League and a number of clubs across Europe including Schalke and the Red Star Belgrade, and this is where the 2018 World Cup on Russian soil also came into play.
And if you expand the historical vision, then football has attracted countless politicians, businessmen, and just scammers and charlatans who took advantage of it, and got rich from it - economically and especially image-wise.
It is natural to mention here Silvio Berlusconi in Milan and Bernard Taffy in Marseille, because their intentions were certainly not pure, but they became real heroes in the eyes of the fans.
On the other hand, when talking about the new deal, it makes sense to limit the discussion to the sporswashing of countries, because it is doubly serious - it completely eliminates the freedom of sports from politics.
On the way it is worth noting that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are allies in the Middle East, and it is impossible to ignore the thought that this alliance will also be reflected in the connections between Newcastle and Manchester City behind the scenes, but even that is a secondary concern.
The main problem is that a country with a problematic image buys a property in the form of an authentic English football club that was founded back in 1892, and now ceases to exist as an independent entity and becomes a tool in the hands of a foreign government.
The scammers are the winners
Newcastle fans, who are so keen on cash flow after the Ashley era and are willing to sell the club's soul to the devil, can argue with a fair amount of justice - if Qatar and the Emirates are allowed, then why not Saudi Arabia?
Just because she murdered a journalist who criticized the regime, tortured prisoners, defined homosexuality as a crime, and bombed Yemen?
come on.
After all, Britain has very extensive ties with the Saudi royal house, sells arms to it, and is in great need of it in the international arena.
In fact, when the Newcastle acquisition deal ran into difficulties on the part of the Premier League that refused to approve it, Ben Salman sent a direct message to Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning that further delays could hurt relations between the two countries.
As a result, the British government intervened in his favor and demanded to produce a false presentation that would circumvent regulation.
And so it suddenly became clear to lawyers that the Saudi fund that acquired Newcastle United is not directly linked to the Saudi regime, even though Ben Salman heads the fund, and it is clear to everyone without exception that this is a blatant lie - but who cares about the lies?
After all, this is how the world has always behaved.
To be successful, one must cheat, steal, knock out others, and perhaps even murder if one really needs to.
This is the reality.
Anyone who is not willing to do so is a loser, naive, pious or righteous.
He's out of the game.
The one who is richer, more cunning, worse - is the real winner.
is not it?
Watch: Newcastle fans celebrate Saudi acquisition
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Newcastle fans celebrate Saudi acquisition (Reuters)
ISIS would also be accepted
This mindset is very common, and blatant disregard for the most trivial moral aspects is now seen as the right way.
Therefore, in the eyes of Newcastle fans, anything justifies getting rid of Ashley, easy and material when the club they identify with is now becoming a very financially dominant player.
It seems that they would welcome with open arms not only the Saudi regime but also the Taliban, al Qaeda or ISIS.
Perhaps a red carpet would also have been laid before Hitler if he had been resurrected and came with a sack of cash.
Everything is possible.
And so commentator Bernie Rooney wrote in the Guardian, comparing Ashley and Ben Salman: "An annoying sportswear retailer in the face of a blood-stained dictatorship. Sponsorship contracts with shops facing the beheading of 37 people a day. Dennis Wise's employment in the face of the bombing of Yemen. Is it really clear that one "Are these alternatives - the one that cuts heads - much better than the other?"
Then you see Alan Shearer's tweet.
"Shhhhhhhhh. We can dare and dream again," wrote the ultimate Newcastle icon.
It is the same Shearer who vehemently opposed the establishment of the Super League because it is a closed club of luxury teams who want to freeze the situation as it is, divide the vast wealth between them and destroy the competitive football structure.
And it's true, of course - the Super League is a catastrophic idea, and clubs should earn the right to participate in honestly leading competitions, on the pitch.
But if that's the premise, what did Newcastle United do to become the champions in 2023 in one day?
Nothing, except the fact that Saudi Arabia saw it as a suitable property for sportswashing purposes, and Ashley was happy to cooperate.
He wanted £ 300m, and started a legal battle against the Premier League to get approval for the deal. How does it work out for you, Mr Shearer?
Criticism will fade, the Saudis will win
In recent days, many articles have been published in British newspapers against the Saudi takeover of Newcastle and the willingness to come to terms with it. "Getting dirty money is our national policy, especially after Brexit hit direct investment. In such a backward country, foreigners can buy mostly heritage sites, and that includes football clubs," Simon Cooper wrote in the Financial Times. The Premier League has taken another step towards becoming a shabby playground of dictators, oligarchs and foreign tycoons, they have nothing to do with rooted English football.
Unfortunately, this wave of criticism will subside, and commentators will be free to survey Newcastle in terms of the transfer market, staff building, the lineup the new coach will set up, the identity of the penalty kicker, and possibly his sister's birthdays. It worked with Manchester City, it worked with PSG, it worked with Chelsea, and it will work with Newcastle as well. Everyone will just come to terms with the situation. The Saudis will achieve their goal, and they know it. They even have a backup from Boris Johnson.
And yes, Newcastle will acquire countless twinkling stars, trample on the late financial fair play, and reopen discussions on the need for tighter regulation, setting wage ceilings and limiting transfer rates. It will now be the focus of interest, '90 'There is only one problem, which fans are unable to blindly understand. Newcastle United, as it has been until now, is dead. It ceased to exist, and its head is cut off. The original 'Star City and PSG' are dead. You can insist on continuing to identify with these new entities, but it's really not the same thing.
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