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The Glazers buying United fractured matchgoing support and has cost us over a billion, plus City winning title with the last kick of the season. But if they'd sold to Saudi I'd be inconsolable because pillaging a football club is not as bad as ... mass executions (imho).
I started writing about football in 09/10, going on City and Chelsea’s money being immoral in the context of competition. I still think that, but I’m embarrassed that my ignorance of geopolitics meant I left it there. Now, we all know who and what these people are. Nee excuses.
Football clubs are family, community and religion - we invest them with meaning so they mean stuff, and life is immeasurably better when the shirts are winning. But trophies aren’t as good as killing and persecution are bad.
What Mike Ashley has done to Newcastle and its support is obscene. But what Saudi do to actual people isn’t just obscener, it’s obscenest. I am literally “running out of superlatives”.
But what to do and how to feel about all this isn’t something Newcastle fans should have to deal with. @DCMS, @premierleague and @thefa should be protecting our clubs as community assets, not allowing their sale to whichever murderous plutocrat stumps up. This is on them.
The takeover not going through is great news for English football. But the @FA, @PLComms and @CommonsDCMS need to learn a lesson: our clubs are community assets not ATMs or propaganda vehicles, and their ownership must reflect that.
