After months of uncertainty and debate about its rights and wrongs (see Christina Philippou’s recent article) Newcastle United have finally been taken over by the Saudi government. No, sorry, my mistake, the PIF, the Saudi investment fund, nothing to do with the government then, I didn’t mean it, please don’t chop me up into little pieces.
The new buyer has claimed the decision-making process at Newcastle will be completely independent of the Saudi government and this has now been rubber-stamped by the Premier League via their Owners and Directors Test. This is, of course, a rigorous and foolproof test. Only the most demonic oligarchs and authoritarian state bodies are allowed through. We can breathe easy. There is absolutely no link with the repressive regime described by Wikipedia as: “The totalitarian regime ruling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is consistently ranked among the ‘worst of the worst’ in Freedom House’s annual survey of political and civil rights. On 28 December 2020, the Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced a prominent Saudi women’s rights activist to nearly six years in prison, drawing a renewed attention to the kingdom’s human rights issues.” No need to be concerned then, about the launching of half-time stonings on the St Jame’s Park pitch or whether a failing manager will be given not a P45 but a bone saw.
Now some people will say “This is good for the Premier League”. Well, I can see how it might be lucrative, add more competition, increase the quality of football and wages of players, etc, but how on earth can it be good to associate an industry as important as football with such owners? Is money all that counts now in football? Is football’s soul so far down the proverbial toilet it cannot be rescued? Must we really accept the Saudi take-over because there are already so many other dodgy owners out there?
Nothing in professional football is more important today than being GOOD. It’s the only thing which should count. The game is in crisis from top to bottom. There have been governance and ownership scandals, clubs have been destroyed, the super-rich clubs have been trying to corner more wealth by creating a super league and to hell with the fans, Championship clubs borrow like crazy and spend like fools trying to reach the Premier League, then fall apart like Derby; League 1 and 2 clubs have rogue owners who seem hell bent on asset-stripping and to hell with the fans too.
“The power and arrogance of the Premier League – and some of their bigger clubs – must be curbed”
Fortunately, there is some good in the game. We are awaiting the fan-led review of football governance, due by the time you read this. Chaired by the brilliant Tracey Crouch, this review offers perhaps the last opportunity to rescue the ugly game and give it a radical facelift. Various measures will be recommended and these will (I’m guessing) include an independent regulator for football, ensuring independent governance of leagues, redistribution of funding away from parachute payments, promoting measures to make clubs sustainable (like artificial pitches in the lower divisions) and many other measures to bring fans to the forefront of English football. The power and arrogance of the Premier League – and some of their bigger clubs – must be curbed and football in England as a whole strengthened as a result.
There are lots of different business models for professional football clubs. There are subsidy models where the owner is responsible and where the subsidy is long term, others where the owner has less sense than money and destabilises his club, sometimes fatally and still others where there are grounds to believe there could be money laundering and other unsavoury deeds behind the owner’s fortune. There are owners who squeeze their clubs dry, and are insensitive to the club’s history and culture. Fortunately, however, there are also other owners who work together with their fans to ensure their club is sustainable; both can take pride in its financial stability. After all, much more satisfying are the victories won on the fields of good governance.
There are more and more people in football who have had enough of rotten governance and a tarnished brand. One example is a group of clubs called Fair Game, which includes my own club, Maidstone. They are campaigning tirelessly for better regulation and sustainability in football. So are others. They are all courageous and right to do so. In football as in life as a whole, if good people stay silent when faced with actions and events which are manifestly wrong, then evil will prevail.
