Bighton visit Newcastle whose Saudi bankrollers have set a new annual record for executions already in 2024
There are two formidable records we can talk about with Brighton heading to St James’ Park. Newcastle United are unbeaten at home in their past 12 matches stretching back nine months, whilst their Saudi bankrollers recently set a new annual record for number of executions in a calendar year. Impressive given it is only the middle of October.
The whole point of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) owning Newcastle is so that the former overshadows the latter.
Sportswashing in its purest form. Let Saudi Arabia be associated with the transformation of one of the oldest, grandest football clubs in England.
Hear the name Saudi Arabia and think of the way it awakened a sleeping giant, bringing Champions League football back to the north east and – eventually – Premier League and European titles.
Rather than public executions, slaughtering people to make way for a new city and murdering journalists critical of the regime by inviting them to an embassy and cutting them into little pieces with a bone saw. RIP Jamal Khashoggi.
Abu Dhabi and Manchester City are the blueprint. Although it is admittedly not going particularly well for Sheikh Mansour at the Etihad Stadium right now.
The name of their country will forever be tainted by questions over how they achieved their success, even if City’s expensively hired team of lawyers manage to get them off their 115 charges.
So desperate are City to make it appear they are in the right that they want to rip up the Premier League rulebooks to suit themselves.
They said one-club, one-vote voting rules requiting a two-thirds majority to pass were “tyranny of the majority” and wanted power concentrated amongst the bigger clubs.
This is the problem when you introduce dictators to a democracy and clubs start bending to their whims on everything from banning supporters for criticising City’s sportswashing to attempting to chuck PSR rules out the window.
But enough on City. We can write all about their sportswashing when Pep Guardiola brings his Premier League champions to the Amex in a fortnight.
Back to Newcastle and Saudi Arabia. At least 208 people have been put to death in the country so far this year, outstripping the most recent high of 196 in 2022 with almost three months still remaining on the calendar.
These are only the reported numbers too. Human rights groups believe the Saudi bankrollers of Newcastle may have carried out many more executions. This despite Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman pledging to reduce the rate of killings.
Despite killing a record number of people in 2024, Saudi Arabia recently applied for a place on the UN Human Rights Council.
It failed to be elected in what has been labelled a blow to MBS’s attempts to improve the country’s image. Still, at least he has Newcastle United to do that.
Brighton will arrive on Saudi-on-Tyne to face a Toon outfit with an identical Premier League record to their own. Both sides have played seven, won three, drawn three and lost one. And both are into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
As a result, the Albion sit sixth in the table with Newcastle seventh. They are separated by goal difference. The Toon have so far been involved in low-scoring matches; they have netted eight times and conceded seven from their seven games.
Brighton meanwhile regularly score at one end and ship at the other. 13 goals for and 10 against gives them a better differential than Newcastle by two. A meeting between such seemingly evenly matched teams should provide a great spectacle.
The Toon’s home record mentioned back in that opening paragraph highlights what a tough asks three points will be for Brighton.
12 home games unbeaten going back to January and a 3-2 defeat to Manchester City in the Sportswashing Derby. City remain the only team to have left Newcastle with victory over the same calendar year period covering the 208 executions in Saudi Arabia.
The Albion do not have a particularly good recent record at St James’ either. The last time Brighton won around these parts was August 2020.
It was the day Tariq Lamptey looked King of the World. He tore Newcastle apart as the Albion sauntered to a 3-0 victory; Lamptey being so good that he was withdrawn after only an hour with the game already won. The Toon had long since decided the only way to stop Lamptey was by trying to kick him off the pitch.
Brighton chances of improving that dismal record will be boosted by the return of Jan Paul van Hecke after injury. Georginio Rutter is also expected to be fit having pulled out of the French Under 21 squad for last week’s international break.
Newcastle meanwhile were held to a 0-0 draw at Everton last time out. Eddie Howe’s outfit missed a penalty through Antony Gordon and looked toothless in front of goal otherwise without either Alexander Isak or Callum Wilson.
Howe said in his press conference that both were in contention to return against the Albion. If neither are in the starting XI when announced, it will provide another boost to Brighton – although Hurzeler’s high defensive line will still need to cope with the searing pace of Gordon.
