FOR the past 13 years Mike Ashley has been the perfect pantomime villain. A cartoonishly wicked football club owner. This is the guy who left an entire fanbase, and city, disenfranchised. The guy who tried to rename St James’ Park. The guy who treated Newcastle United legends like Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer with contempt. The guy who in the midst of a media storm over poor conditions for his Sports Direct workers four years ago was filmed pulling wads of £50 notes out of his pocket entering one of his warehouses.
Indeed, Ashley became so stereotypical in his image as a Big, Bad Businessman that it wouldn’t have been out of character had he been caught diving head first into a vault of gold coins, Scrooge McDuck-style. Ashley is, by trade, an opportunist and so when the chance arose for him to buy Newcastle United for just £134 million, a relatively cheap price even for 2007, he took it.
The problem was that Ashley bought the Magpies just as the market inflated beyond his means. It was around this time that Premier League clubs went from being playthings for billionaires to being ‘sports-washing’ mechanisms for entire countries. Now, however, it seems Newcastle United might have found a country of their own.
A consortium anchored by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is expected to complete a £300 million takeover of the St James’ Park club in the coming days with paperwork now reportedly lodged for the deal to be done. It could make Newcastle United the richest club in the Premier League, leading to all sorts of speculation over how they might sign once the transfer window opens again. Fans are dreaming of Kylian Mbappe in black and white.
All this comes attached with a question of morality, though. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man soon to become Ashley’s successor as Newcastle United’s majority shareholder, has faced accusations of murdering a journalist. Saudi Arabia as a nation has a dreadful record on human rights and continues to oppress women.
Just as Newcastle United fans are celebrating the departure of one owner, they are being asked to denounce another. That has proved difficult for some to do given the money set to be pumped into the club, and that is understandable. Having watched Manchester City transformed by Gulf money sourced from Abu Dhabi, where similar human rights violations have been made, Newcastle supporters can’t be expected to draw a line in the sand now that the dunes are at their door.
A precedent has been set by what has happened at the Etihad Stadium over the last decade and so it should come as no surprise that others are now willing to follow. City fans have enjoyed a period of success to rival any great dynasty with the club now considered a true force domestically and on the continent.
Comparisons can be made between the ethics of City’s Abu Dhabi owners and that of Newcastle United’s soon-to-be controllers, but both want the Premier League to improve the image of their respective states and regimes. That is the purpose of ‘sports-washing’ and the Premier League has turned a blind eye to it.
The Saudi takeover of Newcastle United is not Newcastle United’s, of their fans’, problem, but the Premier League’s. It is they that shoulder the responsibility of keeping its member clubs out of the clutches of such problematic parties. Football clubs are, after all, community assets and Newcastle United are more central to their community than most.
This is a responsibility that the Premier League, along with UEFA, FIFA and every other governing body charged with protecting clubs and fans, have shirked. To hold Newcastle United supporters to account for the failings of the sport as a whole is unfair. Keep this in mind before judging their joyous reaction to the arrival of their new crown prince.
