I want change but...........

[Geordie_Exile_De]

At what cost?

There is something nagging me about the Saudi connection.

There is a piece in the Independant that doesn't help my reservations....

I'm a long-time Saudi dissident — Newcastle United have no idea what they're getting into

The notion that Newcastle United’s new owners would use their cash to transform the club into a football powerhouse along the lines of Manchester City is a pipe dream

As the English Premier League deliberates whether to accept*Saudi Arabia’s offer to purchase a majority stake in*Newcastle United, it should be beware of the buyer. Today’s cash infusion could well prove tomorrow’s liability. Morally, politically and economically, English football and Britain’s citizens will pay a very high price if this sale is approved.

As a long-time Saudi dissident and target of the monarchy’s ruthless security services, I know whereof I speak. My family and friends have been imprisoned and tortured by a regime that cannot tolerate even the mildest of criticism. In just the past week, I lost a friend, mentor and towering human rights figure, Dr Abdullah Al Hamed, who died in prison after Saudi authorities refused to allow him the medical care necessary to save his life. He took his last breath shackled to a bed. Other citizens who peacefully advocate for civil and human rights routinely disappear, are denied visits by family members or defense counsel, and are held without charge or are tried in kangaroo courts.

More recently, the Saudi police shot to death a tribal activist who refused to let the government bulldoze his home to make way for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pet project NEOM — which, by the way, is funded largely by Newcastle United’s purchaser, the Public Investment Fund. Entire villages have been expropriated, over the objections of their citizens.

As if this were not enough, the agents of the Crown Prince have surveilled, beat up and imprisoned both UK residents and American nationals who question the “enlightened” rule of Al Saud dynasty.**My cousin, Badr al Ibrahim, is a US citizen who today languishes in a Saudi jail because he wrote articles that the government did not like.

Currently before the British courts is the case of Ghanem Al Dossari, a Saudi dissident living in the UK under asylum and police protection. Al Dossari alleges that he was physically attacked and electronically surveilled by the Saudi state in retaliation for his criticism of the regime. And let’s not forget Hatice Cengiz, the star-crossed widow of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who US intelligence believes was the object of Saudi surveillance in London last May, seven months after Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Even if one chooses to ignore one’s moral qualms about this deal, the economics of it don’t make sense either. NUFC’s purchaser, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is an unreliable and utterly non-transparent partner.


The Wall Street Journal*has reported: “The fund has invested billions of dollars in global markets with little of the discipline and institutional controls typical of investment funds of its size”. Due diligence and “know your customer” best practices are routinely sacrificed to personal expediency. Current and former fund officials have said that CEO Yasir Al Rumayyan often ignores the advice of the Public Investment Fund’s investment committees and risk managers.

The notion that Newcastle United’s new owners would use their cash to transform the club into a football powerhouse along the lines of Manchester City is a pipe dream. With the price of oil tumbling to below $20 per barrel, Saudi Arabia is bleeding money, and the twin shocks of oversupply and crashing demand in energy markets mean that this hemorrhaging will continue for some time to come. The stewards of Saudi Arabia’s economy will soon come under strong domestic pressure to devote their shrinking resources to the welfare of their own citizens, rather than to high-priced transfer fees.

Despite the obvious belt-tightening that is required, Mohammed bin Salman continues to pursue costly monuments to his vanity at the expense of his people. While it is unlikely that the Crown Prince will suddenly become a responsible steward of Saudi Arabia’s wealth were the Premier League to reject this sale, it certainly should not be an enabler of bad behavior.* *

The English Premier League is on the verge of making an own goal of historic and catastrophic proportions. Saudi ownership of Newcastle United exposes the EPL to reputational and legal risk.

The policies and practices of the government of Saudi Arabia and its sovereign wealth fund run contrary to everything that Great Britain stands for: the rule of law, human rights and the notion of fair play. Do you really want to trade your good name and the interests of English football fans for a paltry $300 million?

Ali Al-Ahmed is the Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, DC

Thoughts?

[toptoon]

My thoughts are that it isn’t NUFC or the club’s fans role to be the world’s moral police. The beauty of sport is that it can be separated from politics.
We vote in our government to decide on such issues and I haven’t heard anything from them, and I am unafraid that there will be any negative changes in the north east if this goes through.

[Kal]

At what cost?

There is something nagging me about the Saudi connection.

There is a piece in the Independant that doesn't help my reservations....



Thoughts?

He tweeted, Trumps handling of coronavirus is worse than the US handled the war in Vietnam.

Clearly deranged and should be ignored !

[Zippity]

It's a fair question.

I feel uneasy about Saudi ownership because of all the obvious associations. But, I also agree that it's not our job as supporters to be at the forefront of protests or take action when our government-and, indeed, Royal Family-are so happy to be in cahoots with them.

As I said the other day, we all operate on different levels and, quite often, it's to do with how much something directly affects our daily lives. Aye, we could spend every waking hour fighting injustice-as some people do and fair play to them-but where do you start making sure that every aspect of your daily life isn't tainted? And where do you stop? Clothes are made in appalling sweatshops, fast food is linked to the destruction of the rainforests, our taxes go to a government who supply arms to appalling regimes...I could go on. I guess the other end of the question is 'where do you stop, where do you draw the line?

Some people will draw the line here and I totally get that and respect their decision.

For me? I'm not drawing the line here and most of us won't. Is it a cop out, is it unethical, a betrayal of principles or a realistic approach, a pragmatic one, one made with the heart? All or some of those and, as ever, the answer lies somewhere inbetween the two.

[HughieG]

I agree with both TopToon and Zip here.

But I strongly distance myself from those fans who can not see anything to be critical of here with regards to the takeover... That's just too ignorant.

[Geordie1974]

What gets me with these people making such articles and sticking the boot in is they only mention the bad and not the overall picture.
The Saudi govt as everyone knows have done horrendous things but what do we all do, alienate them and not encourage them to change. Or do we give them a chance.
What they do over there has nothing to do with us as fans regards this takeover.
They have made steps recently to improve things, women can now drive, women can go to sporting events, they have stopped the death penalty just the other day for child criminals. Steps in the right direction.
The war on the Yemen, that is a matter for the govt. Is that war any different to Tony Blair going in on his fake war with Iraq.
This is a big chance for our club. I will judge on the football side.

[Kal]

I agree with both TopToon and Zip here.

But I strongly distance myself from those fans who can not see anything to be critical of here with regards to the takeover... That's just too ignorant.

If the takeover of Newcastle United gets too much for your sense of morality, you could always distance yourself from it. It is a choice after all.

[Geordie1974]

One reporter said when it goes through to expect demonstrations at St James Park. Well as long as they keep it right morally with their newly found moral compass and demonstrate at Bramall Lane, Old Trafford due to their sponsorship deal with the Saudis and also Downing Street.

[HughieG]

If the takeover of Newcastle United gets too much for your sense of morality, you could always distance yourself from it. It is a choice after all.

Is it?

[Geordie1974]

Are you against the takeover then Hughie ?