Irish Examiner view: Saudi Arabia’s Geordie takeover an exercise in soft power

Jubilant Newcastle United fans hold a Saudi flag outside St James' Park whilst celebrating the club's takeover. Picture: Tom Wilkinson/PA Wire

There are many people who concluded long ago that soccer has made a Faustian pact, and should be ignored in favour of native sports. 

Equally, there are hundreds of thousands of Irish people who support and watch clubs both here and in Britain with great enthusiasm, and at some cost, who will be fascinated by the consequences of the most expensive football takeover in history.

The fact that Saudi Arabia has not bought Newcastle United because of a new-found taste for stottie cake or a desire to go ‘gannin’ along the Scotswood Rd to see the Blaydon Races is obvious to all. This is an exercise in soft power from a regime which has consistently demonstrated its ruthlessness against opposition and minorities. 

It is clear that the only real obstacle to an acquisition that has been worked upon for 18 months had to do with commercial TV rights, not human rights, and that once this was resolved, progress was rapid. The notion that there will be an arm’s-length relationship between the sovereign wealth fund and the oil state’s rulers is piffle, believed by no one.

Ex-owner Mike Ashley might wonder how it is he has made himself less popular with supporters than a dynastic ruler whose security forces tricked journalist Jamal Khashoggi of The Washington Post inside its Istanbul embassy to murder and dismember him, a fact to be remembered on the same day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in honour of brave reporters. 

Newcastle supporters would do well to watch The Dissident, the compelling account of what happened to Khashoggi, rather than an Alan Shearer greatest goals DVD.

Geordie supporters cannot be traduced for celebrating good fortune and they cannot be held to higher standards than the British government which brokers €8bn of trade, much of it in the arms industry, with the Saudis.

The Premier League has signed off the deal, which is confirmation of its financial primacy over La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1.

However, the Premier League also makes an oft-repeated commitment not to tolerate discrimination. That pledge has some interesting challenges ahead, however laid back their executives feel now about sports-washing.