Person responsible for Saudi Arabia PIF Newcastle United takeover is never questioned – Media shame | OneFootball

Earlier this month it was the three year anniversary of the Newcastle United takeover, as the Saudi Arabia PIF bought a controlling interest in the football club.

On 7 October 2021, Mike Ashley finally handing over the keys to St James’ Park.

The Saudi Arabia PIF and to a lesser extent the Reuben family, financing the Newcastle United takeover, with Amanda Staveley having fronted the whole thing.

A lot was said in the media ahead of the Newcastle United takeover finally getting approval.

Even more so after Saudi Arabia PIF took control.

The media playing the blame game.

Well, they couldn’t get access to the actual Saudi Arabia PIF, or basically, chose not to even try. The same with the Reuben family, for whatever reason(s).

So who could the media get at, to be held responsible for this Saudi Arabia PIF takeover of a Premier League club?

Well obviously, the… Newcastle United fans.

Yes, so the people who’d had zero say in Mike Ashley taking over in 2007 and who spent most of the next decade and a half, trying to unsuccessfully get him out of the club, were now the ones to blame for the Saudi Arabia PIF buying Newcastle United.

This happened from the very start on 7 October 2021 with the media, their misrepresentation of Newcastle United fans.

The spontaneous celebrations outside St James’ Park, when on hearing the news we saw thousands and thousands of fans turn up to celebrate well into the night the very belated departure of Mike Ashley, it was instead portrayed by so many in the media as simply celebrating the Saudi Arabia PIF coming in.

After 15 seasons kicking off under Mike Ashley and all fans having lost all hope, even those still going to home matches, all of those fans would still have turned up at St James’ Park on 7 October 2021, no matter who had taken over the club.

It was purely and simply a celebration of getting rid of Mike Ashley. Somebody who had systematically sucked all the benefits and life out of our football club and the fanbase. Cynically exploiting our loyalty for his own ends.

After such a chronic lack of investment allowed, on and off the pitch, by Mike Ashley, then of course the hope was that new ambitious owners would do what new ambitious owners of Premier League clubs usually do. Invest initial money to help try and get their investment/football club more competitive. Newcastle United fans were no different to those at any other club, whether that be Aston Villa, Everton, Manchester City, Chelsea, Forest and so on.

However, the cynical media had Newcastle United fans in their sights. The ones they could target to blame for the Saudi Arabia PIF takeover.

Newcastle United fans constantly challenged as to why they were continuing to support their football team/club, instead of boycotting matches and campaigning against human rights abuses in a country that our government(s) sees as an ally and valuable trading partner. Funnily enough, the same question never asked once, by any media, of Manchester United fans, who have seen their club take millions in sponsorship money from the Saudi regime since 2008 onwards, every single season, and continue to do so to this day.

If one Newcastle United fan wore a tea towel on his head, then apparently all Newcastle United fans did, every match.

If one Newcastle United fan, or group of NUFC supporters, were seen singing a pro-Saudi song, that was all Newcastle United fans apparently.

If one Newcastle United fan, posted something ridiculous on social media, then that was apparently what all Newcastle United fans believed. Even if that ‘Newcastle United fan’ posting on Twitter was posting under @FTM1973…

That is all bad enough but we come to the core media shame, an absolute disgrace on how they choose to constantly target Newcastle United fans, rather than this individual.

The one person truly responsible for the Saudi Arabia PIF Newcastle United takeover, who is never questioned or challenged about it.

Yes, Mike Ashley.

The man who was just about a billionaire in 2007 when he bought Newcastle United, who then was a multi-billionaire by 2021 when he sold the club, with the way he used and abused our football club and support for his own selfish reasons and benefit, having played a key role in that much expanded wealth. Mike Ashley also sold the club at a handsome profit on what he had paid, despite having ran the club into the ground and was on his way to a certain third relegation under his ownership.

It was Mike Ashley who decided to sell Newcastle United over to Saudi Arabia PIF. There was only one person who had a vote whether or not to do this and it was him. Not a single Newcastle United fan had a vote on whether to do this or not.

So why do the media never go after Mike Ashley? Why do they always go after the Newcastle United fans?

Mike Ashley pretended for over a decade that he was trying to sell Newcastle United. When he did what he did with Kevin Keegan in 2008 and fans revolted, he quickly promised fans he would sell ASAP and they could thus stop their protests. You would have to be pretty thick to believe that Mike Ashley couldn’t have sold the club many times over in the next decade or more, as pretty much every other single major Premier League club was bought and sold, some of them two or three times. He was of course just pretending he was going to sell to get the fans to calm protests and just keep turning up, giving him money, filling up all the seats next to his horrific SD advertising.

That only changed when he really did break the will of so many fans, when so many did boycott and refuse to fill those seats next to his SD advertising. Not a great message going out worldwide, your brand advertising next to thousands of empty seats.

The moment we knew Mike Ashley would sell, was when he announced 10,000+ free season tickets to fill up those seats next to his adverts. He knew the game was up with the fanbase, it would only be downhill from there.

That was then he more than willingly entered into talks with the Saudi Arabia PIF and agreed to sell Newcastle United to them. Mike Ashley would of quite literally sold the club to anybody at that point, anybody.

As we know of course, that dragged on and on waiting for Premier League approval and that only came once the Saudi government did their deal with BeIn Sport to sort out that dispute. The takeover then instantly approved.

Amusingly, it has since become public, that as that Premier League approval was awaited, Mike Ashley then realised that actually he could get a far higher selling price now, than had been the case when he rushed to agreement with Saudi Arabia PIF some couple of years earlier. However, he was tied into a sale he couldn’t now get out of.

Reality is that for all those disgraceful years of Mike Ashley ownership, the Saudi Arabia PIF actually got a massive bargain with Newcastle United. Just look at the deals that have been done on other clubs these past four or five years, both in the Premier League and on mainland Europe.

Mike Ashley having to wait a little longer before reaching his next billion…

The UK media are an absolute disgrace and they would rather bully Newcastle United fans via some random Tweet that could have been posted by anyone, rather than go and knock on the door of Mike Ashley, the one person responsible for the decision to hand over control of Newcastle United to the Saudi Arabia PIF.