The "delighted Ashley has gone, but uncomfortable with Saudi ownership" thread

[Dinho lad]

I know.... let Guantanamo Bay host a world cup. 

[timeEd32]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/88b391de-2166-11ed-bb7e-0eb11fc7ccd4?shareToken=2a4ddc51ee5bbcb03865e2619df32341

 

Saudis sentence teenagers to death despite vow to stop

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by timeEd32

[Happinesstan]

Despite my reservations, which I won't go over, the signing of Isak suggests to me that we are a legitimate investment for PIF.

I jokingly said that Yasir saw us lose against Cambridge and stumped up £25 million for Wood, and after watching us go toe to toe with one of the best teams in the World, stumped up the 60 for Isak.

Maybe it's a brilliant PR exercise but it suggests their level of investment is linked to their perceived value of their overall investment.

Basically they didn't go out and buy M'Bappe just for the exposure.

[Mowen]

Saudi kit today was it?

[RS]

 

[HaydnNUFC]

Will take the performative fewm about that kit all day as I resent the symbolism behind it too. But not from that fucking bell end.

[Kanji]

Kit looked good to be me. 

[Yorkie]

2 minutes ago, Kanji said:

Kit looked good to be me. 

 

Looked absolutely mint, like. One of the best we've had in ages. Rotten connotations and stinkingly cynical from Castore, of course. But looks great. 

[MrRaspberryJam]

21 minutes ago, RS said:

 

 

Oliver Holt is a greasy haired bag of shit. 

[et tu brute]

2 minutes ago, MrRaspberryJam said:

 

Oliver Holt is a greasy haired bag of shit. 

Biggest hypocrite going he is

[kingxlnc]

I saw a good thing on Twitter, showing PSG having a brown and white away kit in the colours of Qatar, Chelsea having a Russian colours away kit, Leicester having a Thailand flag away kit. 

It's pretty standard stuff - can't help but think it's based on racism, to be honest. Commercially it absolutely makes sense, it's not that big a deal and we've actually had those colours in an away kit before so it's not exactly breaking precedent. 

[Nucasol]

Edwards joining Holt and Mark Douglas on the upper deck of the HMS Superior Morals. Martin Samuel and Andy Dunn will join them shortly when the tug ‘Virtue Signaller’ ferries them over. Samuels is worried he’ll miss out on the canapés at Admiral Lineker’s Welcome Aboard party ahead of embarking to their month long junket in that bastion of human rights Qatar.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Nucasol

[GeordieDazzler]

8 hours ago, MrRaspberryJam said:

 

Oliver Holt is a greasy haired bag of shit. 

let’s be honest, Holts career should have been over after that Ronaldo/Fatboy Slim tweet. Unforgivable.

[Tiresias]

10 minutes ago, kingxlnc said:

I saw a good thing on Twitter, showing PSG having a brown and white away kit in the colours of Qatar, Chelsea having a Russian colours away kit, Leicester having a Thailand flag away kit. 

It's pretty standard stuff - can't help but think it's based on racism, to be honest. Commercially it absolutely makes sense, it's not that big a deal and we've actually had those colours in an away kit before so it's not exactly breaking precedent. 

 

I'm sorry being uncomfortable about being an advertising board for Saudi Arabia is not fucking racism and I'm not having that accusation thrown at those of us who are a bit uncomfortable to be promoting a regime that murders journalists, conducts mass executions, imprisons women for reading twitter and people for being gay.

[Nucasol]

Just now, GeordieDazzler said:

let’s be honest, Holts career should have been over after that Ronaldo/Fatboy Slim tweet. Unforgivable.

The moment he rocked up on Sunday Supplement wearing a hair band he should have been barred out the NUJ.

[kingxlnc]

4 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

 

I'm sorry being uncomfortable about being an advertising board for Saudi Arabia is not fucking racism and I'm not having that accusation thrown at those of us who are a bit uncomfortable to be promoting a regime that murders journalists, conducts mass executions, imprisons women for reading twitter and people for being gay.

I didn't mean you personally, I meant in general the wider furore that Saudi (and previously UAE) had gotten for oil and "sportswashing" whereas Chelsea never got anything of the sort even though it's proven with Abramovich selling the club his ties to Putin's (also murderous) regime (and he is linked to Israel, too who have horrible human rights issues). The US have got a despicable record with human rights, ditto China. Man City were previously owned by the Thai PM who also has huge controversies. These things never come up - I do understand PIF being linked to the national government whereas the others are private owners but no private owner becomes wealthy in those countries without links to high ranking officials / governement / royalty etc. Basically, it's all corrupt so it's selective outrage. You can find something to be offended at for anything if you look at it deep enough. Why are we not offended at the porn barons owning West Ham for how this corrupts morality and has eroded the fabric of society? 

[Groundhog63]

9 hours ago, RS said:

 

I'm a sad cunt with too much time on my hands with a penchant for "whataboutary" but whenever I see journalists criticising SA's crushing of journalists I search their timelines for how many times they've mentioned Julian Assange. Usually zilch. 

[GWN]

The whole thing is owned by corrupt folk or something not right .

 

I don’t like many countries, too many but they have too many fingers in too many pies for me to get all moralistic . If I took this attitude I’d have a shite life , no horse racing , no football , no boxing , no F1 , I like all these sports .

 

i lost my wife in May , ive very little to look forward to , fuck if I’m giving this lot up over morals, my life , my choice . Sorry.

[Ben]

The fact that these journalists work for media barons like Murdock who have contributed to putting people in power that have fucked over millions of people for the benefit of the rich,  speaks volumes, not to bothered where the money comes to pay their bills.

[Guest HTT II]

We are all basically hypocrites, have a moral level of what is acceptable or not and are, as is human nature, very selective creatures. I support NUFC, I don’t condone the actions of any abhorrent regime, do I fight against it, no, why, because, well, I’m alright Jack keep your hands off of my stash. Not really, I do care, but I can’t do anything whatsoever and again, we are all complicit in this all. Just be nice to one another, try not to offend people, be kind, be aware, enjoy the limited life-span you have left and if a SA owned NUFC gives you some comfort and joy in live, so be it. No-one can have a go at joe public when every single government and business is basically complicit in dealing with these awful regimes and we are merely just consumers of a product or products, that’s our worth as society sadly. But we are worth more to our own society, I.e. our friends and family. That‘a the best we can do!

[Awaymag]

1 minute ago, HTT II said:

We are all basically hypocrites, have a moral level of what is acceptable or not and are, as is human nature, very selective creatures. I support NUFC, I don’t condone the actions of any abhorrent regime, do I fight against it, no, why, because, well, I’m alright Jack keep your hands off of my stash. Not really, I do care, but I can’t do anything whatsoever and again, we are all complicit in this all. Just be nice to one another, try not to offend people, be kind, be aware, enjoy the limited life-span you have left and if a SA owned NUFC gives you some comfort and joy in live, so be it. No-one can have a go at joe public when every single government and business is basically complicit in dealing with these awful regimes and we are merely just consumers of a product or products, that’s our worth as society sadly. But we are worth more to our own society, I.e. our friends and family. That‘a the best we can do!

Exactly and the more noise the media make, its because they see NUFC starting to become a threat to the established order.

 

I used to bite to the usual suspects on Twitter but now just ignore them.   They can continue to shout but less and less people are listening!

[NE27]

If they want to go at KSA fair enough.

 

It's when fans are drawn into it for the reaction pisses me off.

 

I'll be honest, I've switched off from most of it, probably all of it if it wasn't maybe shared here.

[Guest HTT II]

My own way of trying to carpenmentalise my own feelings on who owns us is I won’t put any money into ‘them’, I will enjoy my team out on the pitch though and fully support people who are are just like me, just obviously very talented at playing football, management, coaching and in business, I.e. Staveley, her husband, the Reubens, and our new CEO and DOF, all good people I’m sure who are in this like I am, to see a successful NUFC on and off the pitch.

[Hovagod]

Saw one stupid cunt with a Saudi flag yesterday- him and his equally thick looking mates singing about being on the gear.  I thought that depressing little trend had ended. 

[Tiresias]

1 hour ago, kingxlnc said:

I didn't mean you personally, I meant in general the wider furore that Saudi (and previously UAE) had gotten for oil and "sportswashing" whereas Chelsea never got anything of the sort even though it's proven with Abramovich selling the club his ties to Putin's (also murderous) regime (and he is linked to Israel, too who have horrible human rights issues). The US have got a despicable record with human rights, ditto China. Man City were previously owned by the Thai PM who also has huge controversies. These things never come up - I do understand PIF being linked to the national government whereas the others are private owners but no private owner becomes wealthy in those countries without links to high ranking officials / governement / royalty etc. Basically, it's all corrupt so it's selective outrage. You can find something to be offended at for anything if you look at it deep enough. Why are we not offended at the porn barons owning West Ham for how this corrupts morality and has eroded the fabric of society? 

 

Fair and yes there is selectiveness, but I don't think it's fair to say there was no outrage about Abramovitch owning Chelsea at all, there was plenty and I think people need to guard against reading everything about how awful PIF are because we are Newcastle fans, but because we aren't chelsea fans we didn't pour over every article about dodgy russian mob connections and so assume they didn't exist. 

 

Football should not have become an arena for nation states to play around in, it is an absolute wrong for clubs to be owned by nation states and by billionaires with dubious agendas and ethics, but unfortunately thsi is what the premier league and all its audience and money has ushered in. Newcastle fans had absolutely nothing to do with this, and do not need to feel guilty over it at all, this was all done to us, and I am enjoying the side effects of us being invested in as well. Supports don't need to be cheerleaders for PIF though, if anything the ashley years ought to have taught fans is you are not obligated to support your owner in all things. 

 

I do have more qualms than most. As a gay fan seeing our players swanning around in an advert for Saudi Arabia rather undermines all the work with rainbow laces etc etc, the messaging there is somewhat mixed, and to those that think that wanting to appear more palatable will force Saudi Arabia to look after it's own citizens better, well that argument has been made for 30 years. No the UK isn't perfect either, and nor are many many many of our 'friends and allies', but that is whataboutery there are still things that are just wrong. But I am not going to take the shitness of MBS take my fucking club away from me, I am going to enjoy this, but my trade is that to combat the 'sportswashing' I am also going to remain vocally critical in my own tiny way of slightly easing my conscience, but for the record and I've said it before, I do not expect, care or need other fans to give anything of a damn. The club is not the owners. The only fans I will be remotely critical of is the ones flying saudi flags themselves for reasons that are beyond me. 

 

Anyway sorry for rant, hope that makes things clear. 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by Tiresias