After Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought Newcastle United, there was jubilation on Tyneside but revulsion among critics who view the deal as an egregious example of sportswashing. What does the deal tell us about the soul of the beautiful game – and what football clubs mean to their fans?
Last week Mike Ashley sold Newcastle United for £300m to a consortium led by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. In an instant, it became the richest club in the world.
To Newcastle fans, the news was cause for unconfined joy – the end to more than a decade of misery under an owner they reviled, and the prospect of the club they love being catapulted to the Premier League’s top tier. But the news that the Premier League had allowed the deal – and concluded that the Public Investment Fund was not under the control of Saudi Arabia or its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – drew a very different response from those with no loyalty to the club. To critics of the deal, it is an egregious example of sportswashing – the increasingly common phenomenon whereby individuals, organisations or nations seek to put a shine on their reputation by association with a beloved sport – and confirmation that the Premier League is morally bankrupt.
