BROKEN PROMISES AND DEGRADING LOCAL DEMOCRACY

The Hidden Impact of Saudi State Ownership of Newcastle United 

Written by John Hird - NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing

Following the Freedom of Information Requests made by NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing revealing a too close relationship between Saudi state owned Newcastle United and Newcastle City Council, further investigation has revealed serious questions regarding the council’s failure to hold the Saudi to state to account on human rights abuses and unfulfilled investment promises.

NUFCFAS member Andrew Page’s investigation has uncovered an alarming story of broken investment promises and undue subservience of the democratically elected Council to the Saudi government which owns Newcastle United.

“Three years on from the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United, the promised investment in the city has failed to materialise. How was this allowed to happen?” - Quotes taken from Andrew Page’s research.

The political pressure that facilitated the deal in 2021 points to dysfunction within Newcastle City Council which is a barrier to accountability.

It also raises concerns about local democracy and the significant gap between vague promises made to councillors and MPs about Saudi investment and the reality.

What exactly happened to Saudi Arabia’s “massive plans” to invest in Newcastle?

“It should be clear that the “massive plans to invest in the city” played a major role in allowing the Saudi takeover to happen. NUFCFAS’ analysis shows almost no evidence that the plans that Staveley spoke of publicly have been enacted.”

The local press and media have mostly failed to explore these issues.

Local mainstream media have consistently used the term, ‘alleged human rights abuses’ when referring to accusations against the Saudi government, when in fact human rights abuses perpetrated by the Saudi state are meticulously recorded by reputable human rights groups and the United Nations.

"In March 2024, NUFC became the first Premier League Club to be given the status of ‘Football Club of Sanctuary’, to the incredulity of some human rights campaigners.”

Newcastle City Council also proclaims Newcastle is a ‘City of Sanctuary’. In 2022 Newcastle City Council cut ties with a Chinese city over the Chinese regime’s abuse of the Uyghur people.

Despite numerous approaches by Saudi Human Rights advocates, the Council has not held the Saudi state to the same standards they hold the Chinese state.

Councillors and MPs have repeatedly refused to take up specific cases of human rights abuses with the Newcastle United chairman, Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is a minister in the Saudi government and a close confidante of the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.

Having  Al-Rumayyan as club Chairman also breaks a commitment that the Saudi state would have no influence over the club. The Premier League claimed at the time of the takeover that they had ‘legally binding assurances’ that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not control Newcastle United Football Club. Yet in 2023, St James’ Park was the venue for two Saudi national team games. The land on which St James’ Park is built is owned by the City, but the council felt no obligation to intervene to prevent Newcastle and the region being used as a giant publicity billboard for the Saudi government.

The conclusion being that politicians and media are prepared to look the other way when it comes to the human rights abuses carried out by the Saudi regime because they own the city’s football club and were given vague and unrealised promises of investment.

On Thursday 10th October, it was reported in The Guardian that Saudi Arabia had failed to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, in what was seen as a blow to the Saudi regime’s efforts to clean up their reputation on human rights abroad.

It was noted that, “Saudi Arabia is spending billions to transform its global image from a country known for strict religious restrictions and human rights abuses into a tourism and entertainment hub under a plan its Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, launched known as Vision 2030.”

This decision will come as a huge relief to the many human rights campaigners across the world, who have for years now highlighted the gross human rights abuses taking place in Saudi Arabia and who saw the attempt by the Saudi regime to win a place on the prestigious UN Human Rights Council as a huge insult to all those whose rights have been denied by the regime in Riyadh.

How can we have a situation where the United Nations rejects the Saudi state’s attempts to clean up its image with purely cosmetic measures and politicians in the North East give the human rights abusing regime a free pass?

With a new Council leadership and growing pressure, hopefully this is going to change.

Leading Saudi Human Rights advocate Lina al-Hathloul recently offered to sit down with new Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour to discuss human rights, but as of yet nothing concrete has been agreed.

“When Lina al-Hathloul visited Newcastle she said that fans ‘shouldn’t accept being muzzled in exchange for Saudi money’. Newcastle City Council haven’t just been muzzled, they have been actively complicit”.

It is incredible that during three years of Saudi state ownership that neither council officials, nor councillors or MPs have met Saudi Human Rights advocates and victims of human rights abuses. However, the previous council leader asked the club to finance free school meals for poor children in the city. If the offer had been taken up, it would have been a publicity coup for the despotic regime.

It is telling that that council leaders and officials have been keen to build relationships with figures in a club which is ultimately owned by a despotic regime, yet anti-poverty campaigners, Food and Solidarity tried to deliver a petition on child poverty and the council responded by barring the public and calling the police on families and children.

The recent rejection of Saudi Arabia’s ludicrous bid to get a seat on the UN Human Rights Committee also raises important questions for us here in the Northeast.

Firstly, it again emphasises that the torture, murder and imprisonment, the racial and gender discrimination and the use of forced labour at companies such as Newcastle United shirt sleeve sponsor Noon are real. 

No more should the regime’s human rights abuses be described as “alleged”. They are real and should concern all of us in and around Newcastle.

Secondly, it suggests that Newcastle City Council should be following the lead of the United Nations in seeking to expose the regime in Riyadh for what it is. Lina al-Hathloul’s offer to bring a delegation of Saudi Human Rights advocates to Newcastle to discuss with new council leader Karen Kilgour must be taken up.

The whole relationship between Newcastle City Council and the Saudi state owned football club over the last three years needs to be reviewed in an open and honest way.

It is important that some facts are spelled out clearly to the Council leadership.

Councillor Kilgour recently said when addressing Lina al-Hathloul’s offer to meet: “I think, for something like this, it is down to the government to make those representations to the Saudi government. This is above the level of a local authority. As a city of sanctuary, and we are very proud of our city of sanctuary status, we would welcome and support the government in having those conversations.”

Newcastle City do indeed take commendable positions on human rights. They have marked Holocaust Memorial Day and specifically the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda.

On 2nd August, there came another example of Newcastle City Council’s concern for international human rights. with a ceremony to mark Roma Holocaust Day, on what was the 80th anniversary of the cold blooded murder of the last Roma and Sinti at a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland on 2 August 1944.

Newcastle City Council also has an official policy against Modern Slavery. Newcastle United sponsor Noon have been credibly accused of using modern day slavery. Equidem, the Gulf based Workers’ Rights NGO has uncovered shocking details of mistreatment of workers in Saudi Arabia by Noon.

The failure of Newcastle City Council to hold the Saudi state to account regarding human rights leads many to think the lack of consistency is because the regime owns NUFC and they are afraid of possible criticism from a minority of fans.

In the same interview Councillor Kilgour added: “We need to be really careful that we don’t conflate the people involved in the day-to-day running of the club with the people who are responsible for human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. I don’t think it is fair for us as a council to hold those people responsible and I don’t think it is fair to put that burden on fans of Newcastle United either to take on, effectively, a foreign government and not necessarily the people running their local club that they are incredibly passionate about.”

Unfortunately this is the same cop-out red herring used by former Council leaders. No fan or anyone who is concerned about human rights is holding ordinary workers at the club responsible for the horrendous human rights abuses committed by the Saudi state.

All we are saying is that the council be consistent in how it takes up human rights and implement its own stated policies. If Councillor Kilgour raised the case of Manahel al-Otaibi with NUFC Chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan it would have a massive effect. Manahel is a young woman who has been jailed for standing up for women’s rights. She has been abused and mistreated in prison and was recently stabbed in the face with a pen.

"As the Saudi state’s presence in this country increases the temptation for the government to subvert and influence processes to appease Saudi government officials may present itself more often.”

What is happening in Newcastle is also an indictment of a failing model of UK local government that requires local councils to go cap in hand to developers and investors and in this case to a human rights abusing regime.

NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing is a grassroots group made up of ordinary Newcastle United fans. We believe our campaigning work and research raise important issues which need to be taken up seriously by media outlets. Figures in local government, MPs and business people in the North East need to be held to account regarding how they have handled the ownership of Newcastle United Football Club by the Saudi state and the broken promises to ‘keep talking about human rights’ made pre-takeover. Not least, we need to talk about the danger of a foreign despotic state degrading local democracy and freedom of speech on Tyneside, just because they own a football club.

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