EPL Newcastle finally being sold

IMHO, To the average ‘fan’ the only thing that matters to them is ‘their’ football team having the financial clout to do well ….or perhaps to just survive?. Human rights etc are not of concern provided loads of cash gets thrown at it. A bit like political party donations.

You can glue yourself to a motorway but it won’t change a thing….It is what it is…


I note Sky were referring to such takeovers as ‘football washing’ this morning . I guess the phrase. ‘money laundering’ is too emotive?
I’m not sure I’d be fully on board with Oxford had they agreed to this.
Hopefully all Newcastle games will be shown in Saudi Arabia with rainbow flags around the stadium.
 
That's OK, all you need to do is win the first half, and then tunnel to freedom through the bottom of the communal bath.
Come on Hatch we can win this! If we run now we lose more than a game of football!
 
Well. The United Arab Emirates is a federation of erm 7 Emirates - separate kingdoms that cooperate on foreign policy but enact significantly different legislation internally. The most obvious of these is alcohol which is illegal in Shahjah, tolerated in Abu Dhabi and Dubai (although e.g. you can't buy a beer in national dress in Abu Dhabi but you can in Dubai) and a major source of revenue for Ajman and Umm al Quwain which act as suppliers to the UAE. A fun fact is that you have to go through Sharjah to get to Dubai or Abu Dhabi from Ajman or Umm al Quwain - hence every 2 weeks or so my dear friend Mr Stephan used to rock up outside my apartment with 2 extra-strength bin-bags full of booze having made the perilous crossing through dry Shahjah (although functionaries most likely were paid to look the other way when they saw him coming. They have different legal systems, too.

When Ernest Thesiger crossed the 'Empty Quarter' in 1946/47 Abu Dhabi and Dubai were at war, shooters and all that. In 2008, when Dubai went bust Abu Dhabi bailed them out; but not without turning the screw - for example that tallest building in the world shit was going to be called the Burj Dubai but Abu Dhabi made them call it the Burj Khalifa (ruling family of Abu Dhabi) was a neat symbolic turn.

Ah yes. And it was very last too. All the road signs to the Burj Dubai were already up, and they had to change them all [emoji23]
 
I doubt all the funds from the sale of Aramco went into the PIF.

Also, they only sold a 5% of Aramco.

It still amazes me they use that name, to be honest. Standard Oil still gets everywhere. Esso name also makes me laugh.
 
As the other side keep bombing Yemeni civilians etc as well and indiscriminately firing rockets into Saudi. Both sides are committing atrocities in this war.
Both sides often do, it's just we are supplying one side with bombs and technology to do it.
 
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Its all getting murky and just about £££££££`s.

So one route (sponsorship) of injecting money into clubs is closed so we await the dodge to get around it.

Games gone.

 
I wish I could believe that all this was nineteen upstanding pillars of the communities in which their clubs reside, joining together in some moral desire to do what is right...

.... rather than just pure fear of another snout at the top table meaning they will 'only' receive one obscene amount of prize money further down the list of obscene amounts of prize money received at the end of the season....
 
Genuine question - if another despotic regime - say, the Assad family - decided to take over Oxford United with the promise of shitloads of money, what would you do? I have to admit that I'd find it hard not to get suckered in. I may end up boycotting out of principle initially but would probably drift back in a completely hypocritical move because the prospect of good earnings would attract top players here. Football is entertainment and I'd hope that mo' money equaled mo' entertainment.

It's for that reason that I can't quite give the Newcastle fans the kicking they deserve for their a**e-licking welcoming of the Saudis. I heard one fan say 'we've got our club back' - no you f*****g haven't, you plank. You've seen it go into the hands of a regime worse than Mike Ashley. The hatred of Ashley seems to have blinded all of them to common sense and finding the moral compass.

That said, it's easy to say that when you're an outsider looking in. When it's your own club and the future prospects are ones of sunlit uplands, you're happy to brush the murkier parts of the deal under the carpet.

I do hope it goes tits up for them though. For their treatment of Steve Bruce, for their high opinion of themselves as fans as 'deserving' of success, for their inane misty-eyed mythologising over outdated concepts like 'a big number nine' (Shola Ameobi was crap and dined out on having that moniker for years up there), for their acceptance of anything as long as isn't Mike Ashley, I hope it goes as wrong as it can do.

It seems as though only Middlesbrough and Hartlepool from that region live in the real world. Even Darlington went mental with crooked George Reynolds building them that colossal white elephant stadium. Something in the Newc'y Brown Ale up there perhaps?
 
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Genuine question - if another despotic regime - say, the Assad family - decided to take over Oxford United with the promise of shitloads of money, what would you do? I have to admit that I'd find it hard not to get suckered in. I may end up boycotting out of principle initially but would probably drift back in a completely hypocritical move because the prospect of good earnings would attract top players here. Football is entertainment and I'd hope that mo' money equaled mo' entertainment.

It's for that reason that I can't quite give the Newcastle fans the kicking they deserve for their a**e-licking welcoming of the Saudis. I heard one fan say 'we've got our club back' - no you f*****g haven't, you plank. You've seen it go into the hands of a regime worse than Mike Ashley. The hatred of Ashley seems to have blinded all of them to common sense and finding the moral compass.

That said, it's easy to say that when you're an outsider looking in. When it's your own club and the future prospects are ones of sunlit uplands, you're happy to brush the murkier parts of the deal under the carpet.

I do hope it goes tits up for them though. For their treatment of Steve Bruce, for their high opinion of themselves as fans as 'deserving' of success, for their inane misty-eyed mythologising over outdated concepts like 'a big number nine' (Shola Ameobi was crap and dined out on having that moniker for years up there), for their acceptance of anything as long as isn't Mike Ashley, I hope it goes as wrong as it can do.

It seems as though only Middlesbrough and Hartlepool are the teams that live in the real world. Even Darlington went mental with crooked George Reynolds building them that colossal white elephant stadium. Something in the Newc'y Brown Ale up there perhaps?
The way they bang on you'd think they are the only club to ever have had a tight/bad owner.
 
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