Two years ago today, the Saudi Public Investment Fund took over Newcastle United Football Club. 24 months on and so much has changed. Newcastle have just beaten Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League group stages. The Magpies have gone from battling relegation to finishing fourth last season. Instead of going mad with power and buying Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi, manager Eddie Howe has built a team intelligently. Granted, that smart squad-building has still cost over £400 million. But it has proven more sustainable than the initial mad dash Manchester City went on when their Gulf millions rolled in. Signing Robinho this is not.
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But some things haven’t changed. There remains a Saudi-sized asterisk next to any Newcastle praise. It remains hard to report this as a rags-to-riches underdog story knowing the horrifying human rights abuses that have been perpetrated by the rulers of Saudi Arabia. A country where it remains illegal to be gay. Where journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by the government in 2018 for his dissident reporting. Supporters will implore you to separate football from “politics”. But is murder ever a political issue? Is homophobic hatred a political stance? These are crimes, no matter how you dress them up.
Newcastle fans deserve to celebrate their success. They have waited long enough for it. Some members of the Toon Army are as conflicted as anyone over being owned by the sovereign wealth fund of a country ruled in such a way. Others dressed up in traditional Saudi clothing when the takeover was ratified. There is such a thing as accepting a takeover and there is such a thing as revelling in it. For all his crimes against football and against this great club, Mike Ashley has never killed anyone.
This duality isn’t going anywhere. It may quieten down, though. Manchester City’s treble last season was applauded with precious little mention of Abu Dhabi’s own human rights record. When Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed heavyweight title fight was announced last week, boxing fans were more jubilant than they were suspicious, despite Saudi Arabia playing host to the fight. Sportswashing is working, at least to a degree. Give the people what they want and they’ll ignore the things they don’t, however abhorrent.
One cannot dispute the PIF has given Newcastle fans what they want. Superb signings like Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak. Success on the pitch including Champions League qualification and a day out at Wembley for the Carabao Cup final. This isn’t the rickety old club it was under Mike Ashley. This is an upwardly-mobile side that is going places. On a pure footballing basis, the takeover has been a massive success.
In moral terms, less so. The battles are fought daily on social media. The moderates among the Magpies fanbase will offer a concession to a feeling of unease. They will talk about how they relish the footballing success but feel conflicted about those funding it. But not everyone is a moderate. Online and in person, some are willing to offer nothing but praise for the owners in all their endeavours. Videos circulated of angry Newcastle supporters confronting human rights protesters when Saudi Arabia played two recent international friendlies at St James’ Park.
This ideological battle isn’t going away. Neither are Newcastle. The PSG win is proof that in footballing terms, the only way is up. Like City or Saudi’s prevalence in the world of boxing, the rest will inevitably quieten down. That’s how sportswashing works. Newcastle fans deserve to enjoy every bit of what happens on the pitch. But they can do so without blindly defending the regime involved.
