SAUDI YOUTH MOVEMENT CHALLENGING THE OWNERS OF NEWCASTLE UNITED

The growing anti-regime youth movement in Saudi Arabia is an important development and if it continues to grow could have significant repercussions for Newcastle United and on Tyneside.

The brave Saudi #MaskedFreedomFighters are protesting online against brutal torture, whippings, knife attacks, & forced transfers, and are requesting basic rights like clean food and restrooms in prison.

The ‘Masked Youth Movement’ also criticises the lack of freedom in Saudi Arabia, deteriorating living conditions, and limited economic opportunities amid state spending on lavish entertainment events and mega-projects. The group also calls for the fall of Mohammed bin Salman, whose right-hand man Yasir al-Rumayyan is the Chairman of Newcastle United.

This is the first organised and public opposition voice from inside Saudi Arabia in a long time and reflects a rising wave of public discontent over political, economic, and social abuses, fighting for dignity, justice, and an end to authoritarian rule.

They aim to restore dignity, stolen wealth, and to break the wall of fear that the regime has imposed on citizens for decades.

The group sharply criticised MBS’s policies, from crushing dissent and imprisoning scholars and clerics, to imposing heavy taxes and mismanaging national resources in extravagant projects like NEOM, all while ordinary Saudis—especially the poor and marginalized—continue to suffer.

The movement said it chose to appear “masked” because “speaking the truth has become a crime in the land of the Two Holy Mosques.” They accused the regime of allowing only those who praise the ruler and promote normalization with Israel and moral decay to show their faces publicly.

The launch of “The Free Masked” movement represents a direct challenge to the authority of the regime, and could be the spark for a larger uprising inside the kingdom—especially if the movement gains broader grassroots support in a climate of political exclusion and suppression of expression.

Saudi human rights advocates have told NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing many times that the Saudi people were not asked if they wanted to spend £500 million on Newcastle United. As these protests show, Saudi young people would prefer the country's wealth to be spent on providing jobs and better conditions for people in their country.

Over  the last three years of Saudi state ownership of NUFC, Newcastle City Council and North East politicians have been at best lukewarm in their support for human rights in Saudi Arabia and have refused to take up specific cases of human rights abuses and show solidarity when asked. They have been hoping for investment in the North East from the dictatorial regime.

The emergence of this youth movement in Saudi Arabia is a confirmation of what NUFCFAS and other human rights advocates have been saying since the Saudi state takeover. Respect for human rights should have been the most important question to be considered when dealing with the club and that relying on one of the bloodiest and brutal dictatorships on the planet was a mistake, both morally and politically.

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