Newcastle Takeover: A new era on Tyneside exciting fans and putting politicians on edge

Newcastle United, an English football team, has one of the largest fan bases in England; however, their fans haven’t had much to cheer about over the last fourteen years. Since fan Mike Ashley bought the club in 2007, they have witnessed one of the most anti-climatic takeovers in sports history. When he was spotted downing a beer with fans just a few weeks before the start of his reign, the fans believed he had the club’s best interest at heart and that he was the right man to lead them forward. 

Could they have been more wrong?

Since his takeover in May of 2007, Ashley has overseen two relegations to the Championship, thirteen managers (one of whom called a bunch of reporters c**ts) and has had fans protesting for him to leave the club since the start of 2009 season. When the clubs’ last possible ray of hope, a Saudi-based consortium that attempted to takeover the club, fell apart they came to the depressing conclusion that their proud historic club had now become a yo-yo club. However, out of nowhere, their fortunes completely changed on October 8th, 2021— the day that saved Newcastle. 

After the original failure to take over the team, the Saudi group came back with a bigger and better bid of 305 million pounds, which is just over $415 million US dollars to buy Newcastle. This sudden bid came after disagreements between broadcasting companies, beIN Sports and beoutQ, had been resolved. The disagreement stems from the Saudi Arabian government blocking Qatari-based beIN’s signals and then pirating their contents with Saudi-state-run broadcaster beoutQ. These actions led to the beIN Corporation launching an international investment arbitration against the Saudi Arabian government, seeking more than $1 billion in damages. Once the Saudi government realized they would fail to win the case they came to a settlement with beIN, ending out the four-year saga. With the broadcasting disagreements between the Premier League and Saudi Arabia finally settled, the group was free to move ahead with their takeover as long as they passed the Premier League owners’ background check. 

This is where the takeover becomes very controversial. Saudi Arabia has had strong links to human rights violations in recent years, with the recent murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi drawing the attention of many critics of the takeover. The murder, committed in 2018 was determined by the U.S. to be ordered by the chairman of the PIF and ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. His ex-fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said she was “very disappointed” and also said about the Newcastle fans that they “don’t care about what happened to Jamal, they just care about the financial future.” She went on to give advice to the fans, “I want to remind them that there is something more important than money, that there is something more important than the financial situation of this club.”

The PIF did still however pass the test with the owner test reportedly not including anything specific on human rights violations despite the clear mentions in FIFA’s. However, by proving that they weren’t directly part of the Saudi government the PIF was allowed to go ahead with the takeover that makes Newcastle one of the richest clubs in the world. Co-owner and broker of the deal, Amanda Staveley, explained the club’s vision, "We obviously want to see trophies; that's what every football club owner will say from day one.” Staveley helped with the Manchester City takeover all the way back in 2008 and will look to use the same model that took City from bottom half sludge to champions. Another objective Staveley will look to improve on is communication with the fans, which will be relief supporters worldwide who have seen over the last fourteen years a man more interested in his pies than his club. 

In a new era not only for Newcastle but the world of football as a whole, there are many questions still yet to be answered. How will the human rights violations of the owners be received by people around the world? With relatives of people who have been affected by them, such as Hatice Cengiz, threatening protests on social media and outside the stadium that would paint the club and country of Saudi Arabia in a bad light. Will everyone forgive and forget the atrocities? Do these new investors truly have their heart in making Newcastle a global force once again? Is it yet another example of politics entering places in sport where it should not? Only time will tell if everyone will put their heads together and truly make an effort to wake a sleeping giant, Newcastle could become one of the top clubs in the world. Or will political unrest, failed promises, and lack of interest from the owners cause them to pull out? Leaving a once-great giant in Newcastle United in fall a slumber they may never awake from.

By Luke Birch