Two steps forward, one step back: Newcastle’s pending Saudi Arabian takeover

Mike Ashley’s 13-year reign at Newcastle United looks set to end with the club close to completing a takeover from a Saudi Arabian consortium.

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia has joined forces with businesswoman Amanda Staveley and the Reuben Brothers to reach an agreement with Ashley worth £310m.  The deal would see the PIF, which is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, assume 80% control of the north-eastern club.

Although initially when the billionaire arrived on Tyneside, he seemed to buy into the project at hand, time soon showed that Newcastle United was no more than a cash cow, with Ashley failing to invest sufficiently in the team, selling key men and neglecting the youth teams and facilities.

His catalogue of errors led to many fans washing their hands of the club and cancelling their season tickets. Ashley seemed to forget what the club meant for the city, instead treating it as a humongous arm of Sports Direct.

Reflecting on his would-be legacy, Aaron Hindhaugh a season ticket holder of 11 years, thinks of the owner as a parasite.

“It has been a horrible period for our fans. You look at some of the things that have happened, he hired Joe Kinnear twice, sacked Chris Houghton for no reason, got rid of Kevin Keagan, and then had to go to court over the Jonas Gutierrez incident,” said Hindhaugh.

“That was something which really tipped it for a lot of people as that wasn’t even a football thing it was just immoral.”

Hindhaugh’s frustration is shared by Alex Wood, whose entire family gave up their season tickets after growing increasingly angered by the club. Desperate to see the back of Ashley, talks of a deal were seen as a needs must, but many are airing on the side of caution given the PIF’s human rights record.

“We felt like it was time to give up the tickets, I won’t contribute any money to Newcastle United as a football club until that man goes,” said Wood.

“I’m not disappointed with the sale of the club, that needs to happen. I am disappointed that we are forced into this angle where no one will buy the club because of how much of a git Mike Ashley is and how tight he is with money.

“They [the PIF] are awful human beings, they’re horrible. Amanda Staveley and the Reuben Brothers, those two parties are genuine, they want this club to do better. Amanda is from the area and a Newcastle United fan, she understands. The Brothers understand sport with their investment in the San Francisco 49ers and Queens Park Rangers.”

Under Ashley’s ownership, fans became increasingly disconnected with the club due to the direction it was being taken. Attempts to rename the stadium and the alienation of club legends are just two from a long list of examples which distanced the businessman from the fan base.

But escaping the Ashley era comes at a cost. The PIF of Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s wealthiest sovereign wealth funds but is part of a country which has been widely criticised for their awful human rights record. According to Amnesty International, these violations include long-standing issues with women’s rights, the treatment of the LGBT community and the state allegedly sanctioning the murder of a journalist in October 2018.

Alongside Amnesty International, BeIN Sports have warned the Premier League about the potential takeover, citing not only the moral and ethical considerations but the future economic model of football. These warnings come with accusations that the Saudi Arabian broadcast company beoutQ has been illegally showing football matches mainly in Saudi Arabia despite BeIN Sports owning the rights.

“What’s worried a lot of people is that Amnesty International got involved. That’s not really something that you see very often, especially in football. It highlighted how bad the regime is in Saudi Arabia,” said Hindhaugh.

“The fact that it’s them and BeIN Sports complaining at each other, its Qatar against Saudi Arabia, it’s not really showing football in a good light at all.

“It’s a bittersweet thing, we want Ashley gone no matter what. Obviously, you don’t want him to stay but you don’t want someone with their kind of record to be coming in.”

The human rights record is part of the moral and ethical dilemma that Newcastle fans find themselves faced with as Chris Waugh of The Athletic explains.

“I’m very uncomfortable with large parts of it, I can’t pretend otherwise. In an ideal world, we don’t want Newcastle United or any football club to be owned by Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi or Qatar,” said Waugh.

“But I also don’t think it’s fair, the perception of some Newcastle fans that they should feel guilty about their football club being taken over and that they can’t get excited about it.

“After 13 years of what they’ve had with Mike Ashley, many just want a fresh new start and I think that them feeling excited shouldn’t necessarily be muddied with the fact that a lot of them rightly are conflicted about the potential ethical and moral questions that Saudi Arabia being involved will undoubtedly bring.”

Over the past year, Saudi Arabia has been accused of ‘sports washing’, a term coined to describe countries which use big sporting events or the investment in sport’s team to improve their international reputation and deflect from issues like human rights. The country recently hosted the Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz fight, a WWE wrestling event and there are ongoing talks about the nation hosting a Grand Prix in the near future.

Questions remain whether the Saudi Arabian motives for the takeover are good or whether it is just another ‘sports washing’ investment. The potential Newcastle takeover can draw similar parallels to Manchester City’s after Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Mansour invested heavily in the club. However, it’s yet to be seen whether potential players will buy into the project on Tyneside and want to move to the club.

“I’d say it is a step forward for Newcastle United as a club, they’ve desperately needed change, apathy has been the overriding feeling this year and anger was it for a long while then,” said Waugh.

“I think for a lot of people football is so important in this city and this region, a lot of people didn’t recognise their club anymore, they didn’t want to associate themselves with them anymore.

“Now, going forward I understand, will they want to be associated with a club which has 80% Saudi ownership? That’s something that only time will tell but they just needed something fresh, something different.

“I would say it’s more of something that had to happen, had to change and then all those issues that come with that will be dealt with in time. For most Newcastle fans they will say this is a step forward.”

All paperwork for the sale has now been submitted and the takeover is just waiting to see whether it passes the Premier League Owners’ and Directors’ Test before it can be confirmed. While undoubtedly, the sale will come with its risks given where the investment is coming from, the Premier League is money-orientated.  There are already Qatari owners at European clubs, Abu Dhabi owners, and Russian oligarchs. Moral and ethical questions will arise but for most fans, detaching the club from the money-grabbing Ashley was key and only time will tell whether the decision is the right one.