Gary Neville has again called for an independent regulator in football in the aftermath of our £300million takeover, but believes “the horse has already bolted” when it comes to dubious investors entering the game.
Critics of our lottery ticket takeover have pointed towards the regime in Saudi Arabia and questioned whether we should be welcoming their money into English football
Red Devil’s legend Neville says he would rather accept the Saudis and try and change their culture from within, rather than slam the door on them and refuse to do business with them altogether.
He also pointed towards a “morally bankrupt” six clubs who tried to breakaway and form a European Super League at the start of the year, which leaves the likes of Spurs and Man Utd without a leg to stand on when it comes to criticising our takeover.
Watch what Neville had to say below, with him responding to NUFC fans Kris Wallace (Gallowgate Shots) and Lee Lawler (Newcastle Fans TV) in a Q&A as part of his The Overlap podcast:
He’s right, of course. Yet he still only mentioned Qatar once, despite the fact that it has had a PL approved broadcasting deal since 2013 (through Al Jazeera and BeIN) from which every PL club has financially benefitted.
If the PL and it’s clubs can take Qatar state money – and BeIN’s chairman can own PSG, be a Government Minister and have a raft of corruption charges against him and the country – then why can’t NUFC take Saudi state money?
End of argument.
sickandtired(Quote)
Of course there have been more radical situations that have taken place within the EPL and who granted England the worlds worst slavers and presently the country that has the most little known bank with rules that allow anyone to hide their wealth and protect it from government taxes, with disclosed by “The Panama-papers” and the more recent disclosures have proven that those remote Island unable to become independent and who’s rules have been changed and who’s investors remain secret are still operating openly for the wealthy to tae advantage of.
That alone should be enough to reduce their word in regard to what is morally allowable never mind six of the top and wealthiest clubs who recently were engaged with other European counter-parts to introduce a Super League that would have put pay to most other top clubs in Europe and most of us understand that greed and jealousy are the reasons for their objection to allow the Saudis to do business with one of their clubs.
Hey ! just live with it .
chuck(Quote)
Neville is making the same mistake that many people make when trying this justification.
They compare the purchase of Newcastle by PIF with say, the purchase of Man City by Sheikh Mansour.
The logic goes; the UAE have a dodgy human rights record, therefore Sheikh Mansour, who is from the UAE should not have been allowed to buy City.
The difference is that unlike MBR in Saudi, Sheikh Mansour is not the ruler of the UAE and is not responsible for UAE policy relating to human rights PLUS the UAE did not buy City with government money. Mansour bought City with money from a private investment vehicle.
Why do people find it so difficult to separate the country from the people?
As for bringing them in and trying to change things from within you seem to have missed something. PIF were told “no you can’t play with us because you are doing naughty things”.
After discussions, announcements are made saying the piracy issue is settled and beIN are allowed to broadcast in Saudi again, and what a shocker – the deal goes through. The exact opposite of what Neville is claiming. Once you let them in what is their motivation to change? They are already in!
I appreciate that Neville’s comments somehow make you feel all warm and fuzzy about human rights and misogyny but his comments are so flawed as to be embarrassing.
BykerBill(Quote)