While I'm very happy it wasn't United that the Saudis used to sportwash their way into global football, still feels like a huge loss for the game.

Thoughts?

@quikzyyy

Equality is injustice. What equality

I'm talking about equality in human rights.

@Footy

"The laws of a different country are none of our business."

When I wake up in the morning, I watch the news on a TV made in China, and eat a banana probably from Venezuela or something. Then I get in my car that was made in Japan, and drive to a workplace where I assist international students from all over the world with their integration into our international university. I then go home and work with data sheets from my second job, which concerns the Belgian sports federation. On the weekends, I watched an English soccer league where my favorite team is owned by Americans, managed by a Norwegian, and the best players are Portuguese.

I don't know if you've realized, but we are living in a globalized society, where we constantly interact with people, items, and ideas from beyond our own borders. To be a global citizen, a member of humanity, as opposed to a nation citizen, exclusively Canadian, is something I subscribe to. To ignore that would be to ignore the reality of the life in which I live.

@Madridista

I'm not shocked and appalled by the takeover. It was more or less inevitable and the Saudi leadership has been attempting it (publicly) for years now. I'm disappointed at the reaction of the Newcastle supporters. I'm also disappointed that we are a society as jaded enough to simply shrug our shoulders and say "oh they're all the same." Do other billionaire owners have blood on their hands? I'm sure Chelsea's owner screwed over the lives of many Russians in the oil industry. I'm sure Malcom Glazer's multitude of business investments, which incredibly successful for him, caused lost wages and lost jobs for thousands of Americans. Odds are if you're a billionaire you got there by screwing over somebody. But at the very least, most owners own a team for the prestige of it or for the opportunity to make yet more money. That is not why the Saudi leadership bought Newcastle. They bought Newcastle because they're taking a pounding in reputation from the wider world that is justified given their conduct. And now they're trying to change the narrative with a key trading partner with connections to the wider world (both the UK and the Premier League). This is not a secret.

If you guys want to interpret calling out the actions of some of the worst human beings in the world, presiding over one of the most authoritarian and brutal regimes in the world as me being a racist, then I don't know how to interpret that in a positive way.

Is anything I said here wrong? Most of it is simply factual information. How we interpret those facts is up to us as individuals, but at the end of the day, a regime that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands (millions?), and the regressive and non-progressive laws of an entire state where being gay or atheist will get you the death penalty now gets to sportwash their way through the sport we all love.

To give context, I'm an atheist. By Saudi Arabian law, this makes me a terrorist, and I can be legally killed by their government. Which, lest we forget, now owns Newcastle United. But, according to you lot, I'm a racist if I say so.

With all due respect, this is not an "agree to disagree" situation for me. I trust you can understand why, given what I've said here, even if you do not agree.

@Sun I can see how me saying something like different crimes something something different looking criminals came off as me calling you a racist. For the record, I haven't seen enough evidence to support that claim. That misunderstanding is on me.

Secondly, I didn't say everyone. I said a lot... And that's true. Roman donated 100m pounds to a Zionist regime that is brutally murdering innocent lives and resettling in the spaces they initially "allowed" them to take ever since they waltzed in Palestine back in 48, and the atrocities that he's involved in mother Russia is far from what you described. Not to mention the CCP backed owners that are also doing what the new Newcastle ownership is attempting to do, and that's now in 2(3?) Different leagues in top 5.

The point wasn't to minimize the atrocities of the new ownership, the point was that we are all guilty of selective outrage. Quik said something about crimes committed on international soil? Sure but that is being committed by Western super powers past and in the present. Now I know it seems false equivalency but I ask: if the United States has gotten into the ownership game... Would there still be outrage? Of course not. They don't kill LGBT folk, or hunt down atheists, or anything that is still shocking by international standards... But everything else under the sun is being committed from pillaging and raping and killing innocent lives so much so that it's just meh that's why I brought up the whole different crimes/different criminals thing.

To conclude, this wasn't an attack on you or Quik or anyone else who's upset by the new deal. Soon enough the uproar will fade, just like we all wear Nike and use Apple products that were made by 12 yo Ughyer Muslim girls. You just become numb I guess.

This is just a new flavor of corruption... You'll get accustomed to the taste.

If the United States government was using football teams as a way to improve their global image, I'd be pretty disgusted with that. Not on the same level as I am with this, because a) I'm American too and those biases are tough to overcome, and b) because the American government does not specifically designate me as deserving of a death penalty. Regardless of the implicit bias and equivalences (false or not), it doesn't matter because the USA is not doing such a thing. In general when sport in concerned, the Americans actually use it pretty positively (see: Ping-pong diplomacy with China, baseball with Cuba, etc). It is one of the few international arenas where my country of birth isn't actively disgracing themselves in front of the wider world. At the very least, I have the power (along with 70+ million other people) to vote out leaders that I believe are doing harm to America and to the world. But I digress.

I understand that your point is based in selective outrage. You state that we are choosing to focus on this now, and we'll all soon "get used to the taste." But we shouldn't. I'm still frustrated that Qatar and the UAE use a game I love to whitewash their image. Those takeovers happened nearly 20 years ago now, and it still rankles me. Some of the most wealthy and most powerful people in the world directly use the game I loved to cover up and minimize their terrible actions. If you want to go commit human rights in Yemen, I care, but in an indirect way - it's not in my eyesight, the same way the small child who makes Nike's shoes isn't either. That's wrong, but it's what happens. But to use the sport I love, and potentially the club I love, to fulfil the objective of minimizing human rights violations is directly in front of me every day. Moreover, it's personal. The club is part of my identity. That's what we do as supporters in sport. It's an emotional connection that is rare and non-sensical for any other business. And these authoritarian governments use that emotional connection to control the perspectives and worldview of millions, including myself. And to "get accustomed to the taste" would be submitting to that control.

I hate it. I HATE it. I refused to do it then, and I refuse to do it now. I don't want to become numb. I owe myself and the world I want to live in so much more than that.

TIFO got some nice video about it.

So the the British cartoonists

All I know is that I can finally get behind a proper club again, come on Newcastle

^ this guy changed his flair and everything lmao

What can you expect from a plastic

You should respect that I can change clubs.

Emobot7

Well I just hope that if a Arsenal is bought, the new owner won't be a governement who don't respect human right. Thats all I wish you.

Ideally yeah. I'm hoping they treat humans better, I haven't looked into it much, but from what I know, they have money adn they care more than the Kroenkes. That is the main thing for me.

quikzyyy

I rather watch Arsenal relegated than lose all the values.

Like I said to Emo, I don't know much about these guys. What I do know is, I feel like the game has changed from when we insulted Roman in 2003. There are many clubs now that have more or less bought their success (City, Chelsea, PSG, Leipzig...) I would rather join these guys than be where were we are now. 'Class' has gotten us nowhere

Like I said to Emo, I don't know much about these guys. What I do know is, I feel like the game has changed from when we insulted Roman in 2003. There are many clubs now that have more or less bought their success (City, Chelsea, PSG, Leipzig...) I would rather join these guys than be where were we are now. 'Class' has gotten us nowhere

This is probably the opinion of the average football supporter, so I'm glad it showed up here.

The point I'm making is that this isn't about sport at all. It's about foreign, authoritarian governments running regimes that run counter to most people's idea of a just/human rights following state, and how they use sports to basically win over hundreds of millions of people who will then defend them in both formal and informal media.

The success of the club is their way of buying your support, regardless of if you realize that or not. And they spend billions on it because the shield it gives them from public pressure abroad (which can cost hundreds of billions in embargos) and gives them a favorable presence of big trade partners (e.g. weapons and oil from and for the UK), which also nets them billions.

They're investing in your support. And they're using your football club and the emotional connection you have to it to do it.

I remember being in undergrad and learning this, and when various leaks confirmed the UAE strategy, it was like a light went off and I was really curious to see how fans of those teams (PSG, City, etc) would respond. And as we all know, they defended those countries nearly uniformly, the same way Newcastle fans celebrate in the streets today. It was a big wake up to the reality of the world and how little people really care.

@Footy_watch

You should respect that I can change clubs.

But more seriously, don't be surprised people don't take you seriously Footy, being plastic is one of the worst trait a football fan can have.

Choosing to stick to a team that have been failures for many years and will continue to fail makes zero sense.

I will either support a team with ambition or a team with ambition and good football. Im more of a fan of these values than I am a fan of any team.

Arsenal have mostly had neither since wenger left

There is no written law that says you have to only like one team, and that team forever. In a lot of ways, I am like Footy_watch because I have a "fav" in a lot of leagues around the world.

We are fans of the beautiful game, and we can appreciate other teams, players, and leagues.

From what I have seen, Footy_watch, you catch flack because of how you talk trash about a team that you showed you supported at some point. It gets confusing as to who you are really rooting for. haha

We all have our reasons for our favs. It's a large crayon box with a full spectrum of colors.

Choosing to stick to a team that have been failures for many years and will continue to fail makes zero sense.

Lol, if you met any fanbase in England and they saw in August you support Arsenal, in September Manchester United and in October Newcastle, all you would get is probably punch in the face.

@Footy_watch My recommandation would be to not support any team at this point (at least in England), I'm a neutral myself, enjoying football without any specific team to root for, enjoying beautifull football wherever it is.

Sure it doesn't fill me with a great sense of personal pride when a team win a trophy but what is the point of that pride if you just support a team because you know they will likely win something thanks to their ressource or if you just started supporting them a few week before their trophy after their victory became clear or propable?

Anyway, back on topic, I for one don't want to be too hard on Newcastle fans, I wish more of them would be against it but I get that the prospect of getting unlimited fund and above all else, getting rid of Astley is already a lot of positive for them. Its not an excuse but even if they didn't wanted the takeover, their power to stand against it would be quite limited. I think Saudi Arabia know exactly what they were doing when they targetted Newcastle, a club desperate for change and bigger ambition.

all you would get is probably punch in the face.

🤣

I don’t like the Saudi monarchy at all but I have nothing against this.

I have and will still advocate a system with some sort of salary cap similar to the american system. I think it works much better than FFP rules who only protects the interests of already established big teams, and not the smaller ones.