Acceptance?
Going along with?
Dissent?
I don't accept the Saudi regime. I would never travel there. But when The Albion play NUFC, I will be in there, supporting The Albion. You?
And more importantly, since you brought up the acceptance of sports-washing, what exactly are you doing to overthrow the Saudi regime? Because unless it is overthrown it will continue to be recognized. I fear you are conflating wider political issues with the will of the NUFC supporters here.
I'm all in favour of mockery and criticism of NUFC. But how will you up the ante? I'm all ears. No 'personal protests' though. Too easy. We can all 'boycott' the NUFC matches by staying at home, but we won't do, will we, though, and if we did, so what? I'm talking about real action that will effect change, not gesture politics.
(And before you raise the example of how peaceful protest against Archer save our club.....this was a righteous local cause that resonated with enough people to start a movement, and in the end the war was won with money. Archer lost neither the battle nor the war because his aim, to flog the Goldstone to add to his wealth, worked; any equivalent victory in the Newcastle context would be a return to UK ownership, not overthrowing the Saudi state. In that context, this is the business of Newcastle supporters, and if they are happy with Saudi ownership who are we to piss on their chips? The fight to save the Albion was simply that. It was not a war against capitalism).
Incidentally, nobody has mentioned this (below). Perhaps some look on enviously at how effective the Saudis are at 'controlling their borders'. And before you blast me with your haughty disdain, I am not remotely in favour of any of this. Perhaps it is time for a national campaign against Saudi involvement in British life. Do you think there is an appetite for this? Do you think that if the tories or labour made disinvestment with Saudi and nationalization of Saudi assets a central plank of their next manifesto this will sweep them into power? At the end of the day, it will take acts of parliament to make Saudi a rogue regime.
f*** me, we still have Russian money and influence in London. Evgeny Lebedev still owns the Evening Standard. "He derives his wealth from his father, Alexander Lebedev, a Russian oligarch and former KGB officer[4][5][6] who was put on Canada's sanctions list following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[7]" Yet he was made a Baron by PM Johnson. What a f***ing country we live in.
And you still imagine I am letting the side down by not dissenting noisily enough over the Saudi ownership of NUFC? Sorry mate. When it comes to putting my kicking boots on, I prefer winnable wars. War has not even been declared here. I'll stick with mocking and booing the bar codes, but I'm not wasting any more energy than that. Still, if a dullard can find a way of unravelling the ownership of Newcastle (and Citeh) to show it up for what we imagine it is, I'm all for that.
Hundreds of migrants killed by Saudi border guards - report
Migrants tell the BBC they were shot on the Saudi border as a new report alleges "mass killings".
www.bbc.co.uk
plenty of 'backwards' places down south too
