FOUR SEASONS OF SAUDI SPORTSWASHING - WAS IT WORTH IT?

As we draw near to the 5th anniversary of the Saudi state takeover of our club, NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing ask fans, political institutions and North East media - was being sportswashed really worth it?   

“Newcastle United 25/26 promised to be a joyous season, Champions League, a trophy winning team, what could go wrong?”

“For now many people seem happy to peddle the line that Eddie Howe is a football visionary thwarted by FFP, ready to take Newcastle United to the pinnacle of English football despite the evidence of our eyes and a Steve Bruce-worthy season ending 12th. More games is an excuse, well, that’s the nature of the beast - Unai Emery has a European season every season, and a major trophy. ‘Eddie’s’ fans cling to that League Cup, ‘wor first trophy since 1969 man’ as if no one else with the vast resources expended on NUFC to date post takeover could have delivered one trophy, and that this makes him immune from criticism. Tell that to Erik ten Hag or Arne Slot, who delivered more in less time and still found themselves jobless. Sunderland beat us twice and they don’t flap, but perhaps that changes next season, once better players have left to be replaced by, we will see.”

THE STATS

• Position 12th

• Newcastle's league record concluded at 14 wins, 7 draws, and 17 losses, scoring 53 goals and conceding 55. 

• Home Record: 10 wins, 2 draws, 7 losses (32 points)

• Away Record: 4 wins, 5 draws, 10 losses (17 points)

• Alexander Isak signed for Liverpool early in the season and Anthony Gordon left for Barcelona at the end.

• Meanwhile, in their first season back up Sunderland finished 7th in the Premier League, gaining them a place in the UEFA Europa League. Newcastle were beaten home and away by our fierce rivals.

“After star striker Isak downed tools and headed to Liverpool, recruitment was left  to the manager, his nephew and some other fella in the absence of a CEO or DOF. The writing was on the wall with early performances, stale, lacking creativity and a cutting edge, until running into sides the players wanted to impress against, Arsenal, Liverpool, and still losing. From there on the season never got going, hammering some appalling sides and winning games fortuitously at times, but collapsing when coming up against real class. Sandro Tonali’s reported view that some of the tactics deployed were ‘anti football’ was telling, it seems for players used to an elite planning and tactical diversity, Howe’s approach has gone stale, especially when the number of fixtures increases.”

“We signed players who were seemingly not suited to ‘Howe-ball’ but who initially thrived, and a goalkeeper back-up whose stock has fallen so much he went from the season’s Champions to relegation favourites to back-up at SJP.” 

MOST FANS AND FANZINES HAVE LOST THEIR CRITICAL VOICE

How did this failure on the pitch happen? It wasn’t meant to be like this. The majority of fans sang ‘Eddie Howe’s Black and White Army’ week in and week out.  Eddie was a genius manager who had achieved so much. 

“The problem is the reality of the takeover and of NUFC circumstances hasn’t been grasped by many since 2021. Whether it be a lack of critical analysis skills or a blind belligerence and loyalty to our Saudi saviours/overlords, many just refuse to be in any way critical in fear or being perceived as negative. It’s as if people worry that saying something might see the Saudis leave.”

• Sporting record 2025/26 - on the pitch the team has gone backwards

• No new stadium and or training ground

• Top players left - not attracting big names

Back in the day we as fans used to sing ‘Sack the Board’ and we even protested at matches about the shame of Ashley’s zero hour contracts at Sports Direct. In four years of Saudi state ownership there has not been even one act of solidarity by NUFC fan groups with the many victims of the regime which owns our club, a bloody regime in which NUFC Chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan is a sitting minister. Wor Flags, rather than highlighting the case of Manahel al-Otaibi, a young Saudi fitness trainer who has been jailed, abused and tortured just for posting on social media, chose to do a banner display featuring the NUFC chairman, who is in fact complicit in her treatment.

“People have been prepared post takeover to keep their heads in the sand. The Supporters Trust is ambivalent to any moral issue unless its the treatment of NUFC fans at a game. There is little to zero solidarity with anyone else on any issue. No leadership, no political nous, just fawning self interest. True Faith is a Shoot/Match style magazine. There’s a huge void outside of NUFCFAS that shames these people and should follow them around.”

James Montague, the writer of Engulfed - How Saudi Arabia Bought Sport and the World quoted Alex Hurst of the True Faith Podcast: ”It’s gone from a hobby - it still is a hobby - but it’s gone from that to a six-figure turning over business with a full-time employee. That wouldn’t happen without the PIF investment (In Newcastle United)”

It appears True Faith and the other fanzines have a financial interest in staying silent about Saudi human rights abuses….

Isn’t it time for supporters to get both their club - and their pride - back?

There is still time for fans to show just what real pride they have in both their club and city by speaking out about the damage that the regime in Saudi Arabia does to people and the planet and regain their pride and the city’s good reputation as a place of human decency and respect for our fellow humans.

It’s not just the majority Saudi state owners of Newcastle United who are allowed to use our club and city to massage their image. 

Bill Cororan, co-founder of  NUFC Fans Foodbank waxes lyrical in a NE Bylines article about the ‘generosity’ of Jamie Reuben, whose family owns a 15% equity stake in the club. 

“This season Newcastle United Fans Foodbank have collected £73,824.01 in our buckets at the match including an amazing £3,126.86 on Sunday, when we won 3-1.

 Jamie Reuben then doubles it to £147,648.02…”

“There is another huge factor in this mentioned previously. One of Newcastle United’s owners, Jamie Reuben, through his Foundation, matches the money collected by the fans at home games. That makes the essential difference because without it we’d struggle and it means that the people making the buckets rattle have the knowledge that every pound is doubled and every note that flutters is joined by Jamie’s twin contribution. Cheers Jamie, what you have done is magnificent and decisive.”

No mention of the fact that it is estimated the Reuben family have donated up to £2 million to the Tory party since 2008.

Jamie has also donated £873,104 personally to the Conservative Party since 2009. At the time of the Saudi takeover the Guardian reported his close political and financial links with disgraced former Conservative party leader Boris Johnson: “We’re not denying that Jamie has a relationship with Boris Johnson and they talk”.

The point being, Bill Corcoran and Newcastle Fan groups are praising, in a forelock tugging way, the small change (to them) the Reuben family donates to put a sticking plaster over hunger in the North East, when in fact the family bankrolled the very party and individuals which inflicted austerity aka ‘planned poverty’ on us in the first place. 

NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL AND TYNESIDE MPs - WAS IT WORTH BREAKING YOUR PROMISES TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS?

There has been a complete failure to live up to the humanitarian traditions and heritage of the city and region. The city council under the leadership of Karen Kilgour treat the visit of Saudi human rights advocates to Newcastle as a tick-box exercise. Not one of the 8 point plan presented by ALQST to support human rights was implemented by the Labour led council. Presumably the Labour Party feared losing electoral support if they raised human rights abuses committed by the Newcastle United owners, as well as risking potential Saudi investment in the region. However, it made no difference as they lost anyway and Karen Kilgour was kicked out. No Saudi investment either.

Tyneside MPs lost all respect too. Chi Onwurah had been vocal against the Saudi regime pre-takeover and boldly stated she would ‘keep talking about human rights’. Unfortunately she has not and as Saudi human rights advocates pointed out she was happy to accept tickets and freebies for the Carabao Cup final from the club, whose chairman is minister in a government which jails and tortures young women and executes child ‘offenders.’  

“This concern is already visible in Newcastle. Chi Onwurah, the MP for Central Newcastle and once a vocal critic of Saudi human rights record, recently accepted from the Saudi owned club expensive tickets to the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley (£500), Carabao Cup celebration event and parade (£1700), and tickets for the Sam Fender concert at St James’ Park (£500) raising serious questions about influence and partiality.”

Nadia Aziz - Saudi woman and human rights advocate 

North East Bylines 10/07/2025

In truth the ex-leadership of Newcastle City council and MPs have  damaged the reputation of the city and the region on a global and national level by their lack of a principled stance on human rights. 

Local politicians could have stood up for what was right and done the people of the city and the region proud.  They could have ensured that the name of Newcastle was synonymous with human decency and respect for all people.

THE NORTH EAST MEDIA CHEERLEADERS FOR HOWE AND THE SAUDI OWNERS

“The dereliction of duty and client journalism from many is obscene in the extreme. You have those, clearly close to the management team who defend Eddie Howe to the hilt, more concerned with access than any standards of journalistic integrity. To imagine any of these people would regularly raise human rights, the behaviour of the Saudi state or properly analyse PIF’s investment strategy and running of the football club would be naive in the extreme. All these titles, owned by billionaires backing far-right political parties in many cases, care about is leading people to their propaganda filled websites and the writers want to keep themselves in a job. The local newspaper is a joke.” 

The Evening Chronicle has acted as an uncritical conduit for PIF propaganda and there has been no analysis of the ownership and who they really are. Local journalists, with very few exceptions, have played a vital role in ‘normalising’ Saudi state ownership. Who can forget the forelock tugging embarrassment of when the Chronicle used the term “HIS EXCELLENCY” when publishing a letter from the NUFC Chairman: 

In an open letter, handed to the Chronicle, His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan said: "Thank you to all the fans for the messages of support and encouragement that we have received as the new owners of Newcastle United FC.”

This refusal to engage honestly with the situation regarding the Saudi PIF ownership of Newcastle United can be compared to the fast growing NE Bylines who have taken a brave and principled stand on the ownership of Newcastle United by the Saudi PIF and have reported the truth about life in Saudi Arabia consistently in an honest way for the last few years. 

There has been a complete lack of proper investigative journalism, leading to a failure to serve the community properly.

It has been left to NUFCFAS and human rights groups to uncover the truth about the PIF and their sportswashing project at Newcastle.

“....answers are unlikely to be forthcoming, and the desire of NUFC supporters trust members to see a clear plan outlining the owner’s ambitions for the club looks certain to go unrealised. That seems to be one of the costs of supporting a club controlled by a secretive, oppressive autocracy.”

THE COMPLEX OWNERSHIP OF NEWCASTLE UNITED by Andrew Page

“As for fans channels and podcasters, the ‘YouTube wankers’ as many refer to them as. They are ill informed and regurgitate content from under pressure journalists. Content creators challenge nothing, and it’s just a narcissistic scream for attention as they monetise their channels in any way possible. Frankly they are best simply ignored as the Lord Haw Haws they are.”

The embracing of NUFC fan ‘content creators’ has been a clever move by club management who allow them to buzz around the club like flies feeding off crappy titbits, always ready to attack fans like us who raise human rights concerns. A bit of access and the chance to advertise trips to Riyadh is a cheap price to pay to those who don’t even realise they’re just small-fry sportswashing tools for the regime.  

As we said at the time of the Carabao Cup win: “On #NUFC YouTubers & Tiktokers plugging trips to Saudi Arabia to #NUFCFans - a sad but serious issue which shows how far the human rights abusing Saudi dictatorship which owns our club will go to get young people onboard with their sportswashing project.”

“The club itself has done all it can to distance itself quietly from its core support. Season ticket price hikes, bans for daring to pass a ticket onto a friend via social media, and seemingly bizarre allocations of tickets. People waiting for Eurostars to Belgium being called up by the ticket office to ask if they want a ticket for USG as an example. A wide number of influencers were invited to corporate seats for their first match day experience, a bizarre exchange with the Green Bay Packers of fans at games for video content (who from Newcastle/NE is going to Green Bay to watch gridiron?!), tickets given to supporters groups like the London Mags for home games, the bizarre Barcelona home tickets ‘scandal’ where Scottish school kids got blocks of seats.” 

“What is going on? It’s the turning of the club into a franchise rather than community institution and asset with no organised opposition. If anything people like Wor Flags, True Faith, the Trust and YouTubers are wholly complicit, providing free marketing materials for our club to be taken from us as they cosplay European ultra culture. ‘Get in early and wave your flag’. What for? Who for? No one ever asks.”

With the notable exception of NE Bylines, the rest of the regional and local media could have informed the people of Newcastle and the Northeast of the truth of what the Saudi regime is doing and helped supporters and others to make informed decisions regarding the ownership and what it really means for the club and the city. 

WHAT FUTURE FOR NUFC AND WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

“For whatever reasons the blinkers are still on for many, but the Saudi retreat from LIV golf, from all but essential investment and capital projects, shows something has changed in PIF’s outlook. There’s no Saudi kit sponsor this year, or shameless green and white change kit, which means they are slowly distancing themselves. They can’t spend massive money a la PSG or Man City, they got in too late. Newcastle United weren’t selling out hospitality last season for many games, and the clamour for a £1 billion new stadium seems bizarre and overly optimistic from those presently desperate to see NUFC. It appears the club must raise its own funds by becoming a ‘trading club’ according to CEO David Hopkinson, whose biggest attention grabbing change at the club so far is banning working from home for staff. This doesn’t seem to impact assistant manager Jason Tindall who has opened two bars in the city in the last season with his business partners. Everything is great.”

As NUFCFAS has reported, the grand and boastful plans by the Saudi state owners of Newcastle United could be reduced to sand as the regime’s numerous projects are pared back due to financial restraints. News of a gathering financial storm does not bode well for their sportswashing project at the club. Rather than announcing a £1 billion new stadium it’s not ruled out that they could sell the club. They have already announced they are prepared to sell a minority share to fund infrastructure. So much for, ‘the richest club in the world’….

Something has to change at Newcastle United. Unless it does, at present there is the dismal prospect of continued acquiesce to owners, who are among the worst human rights abusers in the world, are the chief obstructors to meaningful action on climate change, who simply do not care about the club and are indeed using the club, the fans and the city for their own nefarious purposes. Isn’t it time Newcastle United supporters really got back our club?

Another future would be the local media and political class and fans’ groups and individual supporters and citizens of Newcastle, reclaiming their pride and rejecting the notion of having their football club and city merely being used for sportswashing some of the most heinous crimes in modern times.

In the run-up to the 5th anniversary of the takeover NUFCFAS will play its part. We will be launching a campaign highlighting Saudi prisoners of conscience. We’ll be asking fans to put posters on social media of Manahel al-Otaibi amongst others during the world Cup:

DID YOU KNOW?

Manahel al-Otaibi is serving a five-year prison sentence because of her choice of clothing and support for women’s rights.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK

Saudi Arabia should amend laws to protect women's rights and freedom of expression.

WHAT YOU CAN DO?

Call for the release of an unjustly imprisoned women’s rights activist. Sign the petition.

We will also be linking up with Saudi human rights advocates and will be contacting the new Newcastle City council, MPs and fan groups to ask them to participate in acts of solidarity with Saudi prisoners of conscience around the 5th anniversary of the takeover on October 7th, 2026.

Would you like to support us? All funds will go towards the campaign.

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