Supporters sang about getting their club back but it is hard to imagine a way it could be more profoundly taken awayThere used to be a sport over there.Football has never been pure. There have always been the rich looking to improve their reputations by investing in clubs. Even in its amateur days, football was rotten, amateurism itself by the end a carapace to try to stop the working classes taking over the game. Continue reading...
Premier League allowing deal shows money and international reputation laundering can trump concerns about the regimeThe great game of football has always been an expression of the country and times in which it is played, so the takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi Arabian investment fund radiates the widest of reflections about the state that England is in.On the very same day that the prime minister hailed the collapse of the European Super League breakaway as a triumph for our moral sporting values, the Premier League was preparing to approve a fund financed by the super-rich, murderous Saudi state as a fit and proper owner for one of our great clubs. Continue reading...
Premier League has become a soft power tool, but is it sensible to sell that capacity to whichever state happens to be passing?Welcome, Mohammed bin Salman, to the billionaire boys club. No need to wipe your feet. Although maybe, on reflection, do wash your hands. Those damned spots, eh? In the meantime pull up a chair, deploy the comms team, fire up the transfer multiplier. We’ve been expecting you. And for quite some time as it happens.It is worth noting that the arrival of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as owner of Newcastle United is by no means the kingdom’s first involvement with English football. That came during the black gold rush of the late 1970s, as Saudi was transformed...
Only when a new owner buys out the hated Mike Ashley will the club’s fans appreciate the Saudi Arabia deal was not the one they needed to hitch themselves toPut the cans back in the fridge. Take down the Kylian Mbappé poster from your bedroom wall. Quietly delete the Saudi Arabia flag from your Twitter handle. Yes, the end is nigh for one of English football’s most unlikely summer romances. Boy meets sovereign wealth fund. Boy loses sovereign wealth fund over television piracy issues. Boy pockets £17m deposit. A tale as old as time itself.Of course, you don’t need to be a professional satirist to spot the heavy irony in Saudi Arabia’s bid for Newcastle United being thwarted by due...
Premier Golf League wants to draw 48 top players away from existing tours with $25m per year inducement but PGA will line up its artillery in responseWe should know better than to expect proper analysis of a hideous cash grab by some of the world’s most high-profile golfers – Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, et al – as the European Tour shuffles into Saudi Arabia this week.We should also be clear that every available strand of evidence suggests these sportsmen could barely care less what others think of the acceptance of appearance fees from a regime where human rights violations render “abhorrent” an understatement. Related: Tiger Woods defends Phil Mickelson’s decision to play in Saudi Arabia Related: Saudi Arabia,...