Newcastle and the Saudi Arabia question no one wants to ask | OneFootball

As the Newcastle United players celebrated, and their fans let out 70 years of anguish, PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan smiled down benevolently from the royal box. Jamie Reuben, the club’s minority owner, occasionally hugged him or slapped him on the back. It had been noted by other executives present how they didn’t quickly head down to the pitch. This was for the team, and the supporters. The fans were the obvious focus, the feel-good story… meaning the more complicated story of the ownership was barely dwelt upon.

You couldn’t have a clearer illustration of how sportswashing worked, even if you have to know where to look.

The phrase, which has actually become so overused it has almost lost meaning, has never really been about a concept as simple as public relations. It is about normalisation, projection and influence.

Saudi Arabia has had its first major victory in English football. The Carabao Cup has rarely meant so much. The ownership now gets all of the benefits, with none of the questions.

Jamal Khashoggi isn’t mentioned, or human rights. Eddie Howe doesn’t face questions about the ownership any more. Compare this to the furore when PIF (Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund) initially tried to buy the club in April 2020, or even the brief farrago after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned.

And why? Well, because they’re there, part of the architecture of English football. Everyone eventually stops questioning something that you see all the time.

It will be similar with the 2034 World Cup, to be held in Saudi Arabia. One of the reasons that Qatar was so criticised was because all of this was new. It was unfamiliar. It provoked different questions. Now, everyone is used to major sporting events being held in autocratic Gulf states.

The brashness of the wider Saudi sports project is another reason the ownership is rarely mentioned. It just pales in comparison to big fights and the seemingly never-ending “Riyadh season”. This is despite the fact ownership of a Premier League football club grants highly valuable presence, and influence, in one of the biggest sporting competitions - and one of the grandest sources of “soft power” - in the world.

The profile has similarly been lessened by the intensive success of Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City, as well as the restrictions of Profit and Sustainability Rules.

And yet the latter have in many ways aided all this, and not just because no one else can afford Alexander Isak. One of the wealthiest states in the world, where Al-Rumayyan has more power over more money than any executive in history, has been able to portray an underdog story; an idea of putting it up to the wealthiest powers.

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Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of Newcastle United, lifts the Carabao Cup trophy (Getty Images)

So many elements of the Newcastle story were the stuff of classic sporting romance. There was the 70-year wait for success, from a regional fanbase who have felt marginalised, and had their club used and then misused by a previous capitalist owner. That’s held up in a way that was never done with many similar clubs, from Wolves to Bolton Wanderers. There was the opposition, England's most successful, who are set to be English champions. There was the trajectory of Howe, a successful English manager at a time when the national team looks abroad. There was Dan Burn, the match-winning goalscorer and personification of ‘Local Hero’. The same Mark Knopfler theme played at full-time.

There was just the sporting performance. Newcastle simply wanted it more than Liverpool. That is a description that has long been vintage sporting cliche, but it was never truer than here. It meant more.

But that’s all why this victory means more. It isn’t a pure sporting story. It’s a highly criticised state politically using what seems pure sporting story, even if it isn’t as obvious as the staging of a sporting tournament. Sela, the sponsor that also have PIF ownership, made themselves part of the day. Some social media accounts were even declaring them the club’s “best ever sponsor”.

This is sophisticated stuff, far removed from the simple innocent joy of a fan just wanting to celebrate his team. The latter is just what is used.

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Dan Burn, born in Blyth and Newcastle’s local hero, also now represents the Saudi state (Getty Images)

There are multiple reasons this is rarely mentioned. One is the ugly fog that clouds the entire game now, mirroring the wider world. It is criticised as selective to focus on state ownership in football when we have billionaires, private equity funds and all manner of capitalists owning the rest of it.

The truth is you can have issues with all of it. But states still represent the most extreme end of the spectrum, with the greatest range of issues. Capitalist ownerships bring multiple problems but they can’t set laws, under absolute power. With states, there are a far greater range of human rights questions.

The very mention of phrases like this, at a time like this, is cast as churlish, which no one wants to be criticised of in moments of victory. Articles like this get significant backlash. People are too beaten down by the world right now.

But of course football only mirrors the wider world. This is just another element that the same powers take. This is how it works. It’s positive association and presence. That makes it very difficult to talk about the questionable elements when people are in tears of joy and gushing about the best day of their lives.

Al-Rumayyan later went down to the pitch. In the royal box after the game, he could be seen intensely messaging on his phone, and leaving voice notes, his six-man security detail always watchful. It’s highly possible a message was for Mohammed bin Salman.

Wembley Way was still busy at that point, fans still seen everywhere. One was heard singing about the “Saudi Mags”.