We’re finally here... but hold off on the Supa Strikas soundtrack at the moment, this is a grim destination. The Newcastle United takeover by the Public Investment Fund (codename for Saudi Arabia) has been in the works for almost two years now, or at least has been in the talks for almost two years now. There has been the will-they-won’t-they issue, the BEIN Sports-BeOut Q fracas, and whatnot. And finally, it has come to place.
The takeover confirmation is one that has – quite rightly – brought forth some criticism and furore from the public. On how this is the latest act of sportswashing in football, and how nations take over clubs as a means of positive PR and public image spin. But there’s so much to unpack from this.
First, there’s the sense of condescension and superiority from the western media, and the yelps of faux morality in all of it. Saudi Arabia shouldn’t take over Newcastle and use it to launder its image, but neither should the right-wing supporting Manchester United owners do the same with the Red Devils as they did over a decade ago. The middle eastern nation should be looked at for its destructive acts towards Yemen, but take a look at one the biggest arms suppliers and beneficiaries to that government, the nation that hosted the Euros semi-finals and final three months ago.
Qatar shouldn’t host the World Cup because of its Kafala policies and its incarceration rates, but wait till you found out the nations co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, one with the highest incarceration rate, that’s decimated the middle east for as long as one can remember, and is ramping up voter suppression, anti-abortion, and anti-trans laws; and another with recently discovered mass graves of indigenous people. The sense of neoliberal superiority is telling, from the human rights industrial complex to the western gatekeeping and hegemonising of the term ‘democracy’. The sense of posing as free is more important than been free.
A lot of the above might seem like whataboutery, and to an extent, it is. But sometimes, it’s hard to point half-hearted attempts at being wary of human rights without seeming like an advocate for whataboutism. Also,and more pertinently, this all points to the issue of football always wanting to pick and choose over morality. About football wanting to choose where to draw its line, and where not to, particularly English football, who paved the way to this path right from the wells of Thatcherism in the 20th century. Saudi Arabia joining the likes of UAE to use clubs are PR arms is the inevitable result of the ingredients that led to the formation of the Premier League in 1992.
Football’s desperate grasp on some form of morality also shows on how it chooses what to shine light on due to magnitude. This is a sport that’s been asking us to choose it over a sense of decency for a long time. Dwell in the glory of a winning goal in a Champions League from a domestic abuser, buy merch and watch us give awards and fawn over a footballer with multiple sexual assault allegations. Look at this footballer whose driving was responsible for the death of a woman, why not add him to your fantasy team? This team that sponsors fascist content, why don’t we laud them for their smart recruitment and their business policy instead? Blatant human rights abuse must be frowned upon, but neoliberal ones can only just be glossed over with a few think pieces.
It’s not just that football wants to pick and choose with its morality shtick. It’s also that football wants to be lauded for when it picks a time to be morally upstanding. It wants to tell us that we should separate the social issues from the sport, all while seeking applause for the times it tries to raise social awareness. Football wants to have it all, to eat its cake, have it, and expect more. There’s so much poison in the water already, but this sport wants us to keep drinking, and enjoy.
From the Premier League and parachute payments to the Champions League becoming a cool kids’ table and likely to get worse, football has leaned into its capitalist sphere long ago. Any sort of move that results in the arrival of the big players for profit and PR is more than welcome.
So, while the calls for alarm over the Saudi takeover are merited, and while the think pieces are welcome, we should keep in mind that this is but another stage in a rot that has set in the sport. The beautiful game has been corrupted by ugliness long ago, and the truth is that it’s likely to get worse. For so long, we’ve asked football to look at itself in the mirror, and for so long, it’s kept pretending that all it sees are flawless features, and we seemed to be fine to have been fed that pretentious retort for so long.
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