Newcastle being owned by a nation state: how is this accepted and normalised? | Barney Ronay

The current position is unsustainable with foreign states buying clubs and taking a seat of power in the national game

“It’s a fund.” There was something captivating about watching Tracey Crouch MP say these words in front of a parliamentary committee in December 2021; like the moment, six episodes in, when you realise – oh yes, of course – that your favourite character is actually a robot replicant too.

Crouch was responding to the suggestion during a discussion of the fan-led review of professional men’s football that Newcastle United’s ownership is in effect an arm of the Saudi Arabian government. And it was an impressive moment in other ways, evidence of the smartness, the excellent optics, of getting someone relatable and unaffected to front up this significant but still carefully circumscribed exercise in populism.