Brighton host Newcastle United and their Saudi sportswashing owners

On October 2nd 2018, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul having been told he needed to collect the final papers required for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancée.

Instead, Mr Khashoggi was ambushed, tortured, strangled to death and then dismembered with a bone cutter by a 15-member squad of assassins brought in from Saudi Arabia to carry out the murder.

All of this was recorded to prove that the mission had been accomplished successfully. The audio fell into Turkish hands, providing irrefutable proof of what had happened after Saudi Arabia had initially spent two weeks denying any knowledge of Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance.

One particularly grisly rumour from an anonymous Saudi source was that whilst most of the body parts were smuggled out of the consulate, the hit squad kept Mr Khashoggi’s fingers.

They took the fingers back to Riyadh as additional proof of the successful murder, to show the man who Turkish investigations and The New York Times named as having ordered the hit – Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

The reason that Saudi Arabia have brought Newcastle United – via their Public Investment Fund – is to try and make people forget about the murder of Mr Khashoggi.

It wants people to forget that any critics of the Saudi regime – be they journalists or everyday citizens – are imprisoned, tortured, and sometimes even killed.

It wants people to forget that Saudi Arabia punishes homosexuality by fines, public whippings, beatings, chemical castrations, life imprisonment or the death penalty.

It wants people to forget that 61,000 people in Saudi Arabia are estimated to be living in modern slavery.

It wants people to forget that on average, an execution takes place once every two days in Saudi Arabia.

It wants people to forget Saudi Arabia’s role in war and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Yemen, arguably the worst anywhere in the world.

The Saudi purchase of Newcastle United is sportswashing, a concept that has been around for over a decade now. It is where a wealthy nation buys a sports team with the aim of turning them into a success, so that the rest of the world associates said team and said success with that country rather than its human rights abuses.

The most famous example of sportswashing is Manchester City. Abu Dhabi brought the Citizens in 2008, sinking billions of pounds of oil money into the club.

When you hear the words Abu Dhabi now, what do you think of? Pep Guardiola, Kevin De Bruyne and one of the finest teams in English football history?

Or a nation with Sheikh Mansour as its unelected deputy prime minister, where the kafala system turns migrant workers into slaves and same-sex sexual activity can result in a 14 year jail sentence?

Saudi Arabia are now hoping for a similar impact to the reputation of their nation. They want to awaken the undoubted sleeping giant that is Newcastle so that Saudi Arabia becomes synonymous with winning a first English title for the Toon Army in nearly a century – rather than war, murder and torture.

They dream of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland bringing the Champions League to Tyneside so that the crown of European champions might exorcise the ghost of Mr Khashoggi (and the tiny, carved up segments of his body).

Except, it is not really working so far. The outcry over the Premier League approving the Saudi takeover – and the government apparently pressurising them into doing so after Bin Salman appealed personally to Boris Johnson in April – has been widespread.

We saw that in Newcastle’s last away game at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace fans unveiled that fantastic banner highlighting all the atrocities carried out by the Saudi regime.

Needless to say, that did not go down well with Newcastle’s new owners. In their own country, they could simply arrest and torture the Palace supporters responsible for daring to criticise an unelected, despotic government.

Not in the United Kingdom though. There may be a lot wrong with this country right now, but we still have freedom of speech and the right to criticise anyone we see fit – within reason.

So instead, the banner was reported to the police as being racist. There is nothing racist about highlighting that a nation allows slavery, punishes the LGBTQ+ community and locks up its critics. The police quite rightly said there was no case to answer.

City too have tried in the past to play the racism card when opposition fans have used their platform to highlight human rights abuses in Abu Dhabi.

When that has failed and the police say it is not racist to hold a political opinion and that fans are within their rights to point out that slavery exists in the UAE, City lean on other clubs to ban supporters as a means of trying to supress criticism.

Weaker clubs will cave in, choosing to bow to the demands of oil money, rather than backing lifelong fans who have stuck with their team through thick and thin. Keeping sheikhs and crown princes happy means more in 2021 to Premier League clubs than loyal supporters.

The stewards at Selhurst were mighty quick to get into the Holmesdale End and get the banner down. It was almost as if Palace and the Premier League were on high alert to act as soon as anything which might be critical of the Saudi regime was spotted in the crowd.

You can bet your life that Brighton will do similar for the visit of Newcastle, not wanting anyone to besmirch the good name of Brighton & Hove Albion.

Good luck to anyone trying to protest inside the Amex, although if the stewards are on the lookout for anti-Saudi displays of dissent then it may at least give the rest of us a better chance at smuggling a lid for a bottle of Fanta into the ground.

In the unlikely event that Brighton fans do manage to stage some sort of demonstration, then you can guarantee the response of Newcastle supporters: Why protest against our club and not Disney, Uber or Facebook?

What none of the Toon Army celebrating their club becoming a sportswashing empire seem to understand is that Newcastle is a very different investment for the Public Investment Fund.

Disney, Uber and Facebook are money making exercises for a nation which needs to diversify its economy away from oil, oil, oil. Saudi Arabia has attempted to open up to tourists in recent years, realising that foreign holidaymakers visiting Red Sea resorts can provide a valuable source of income.

So too is buying into profitable companies. Saudi Arabia are not associated with Disney so that people watch Beauty and the Beast and think “What a great bunch of guys the Saudi Royal Family are” as Lumiere sings ‘Be Our Guest’. Nobody gets in an Uber or posts a picture of their dinner on Instagram and associates it with Saudi Arabia.

Football is different. Saudi Arabia are never in a million years going to make money out of owning Newcastle. The purpose of their investment therefore is sportswashing, pure and simple.

Of course, the Toon are not the only Premier League club to take Saudi money. It has not gone unnoticed that the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix has been advertised around the Amex at the Arsenal and Manchester City home games, which runs the danger of making any Albion fan protest look a little hypocritical.

It is not the first time that Brighton have been happy to take money from regimes with values counter to those which a club who have offered such strong support to the LGBTQ+ community should hold.

When Wolves visited the Amex in December 2019, there was a magnificent rainbow flag display to back the rainbow laces campaign. This was followed by adverts for the Dubai Expo 2020 being shown around the ground.

One minute, the Albion were supporting the LGBTQ+ cause in superb fashion. The next, they were promoting an event in a country where homosexuality is illegal. Money rules over all else in the Premier League, in case you didn’t know.

And now Newcastle have a lot of it. 10 times more than even City. That sort of wealth invested wisely will turn the Toon into a team capable of winning Premier League titles and European Cups, as their new owners demand. It will not happen overnight, but it will happen eventually.

It might even take a spell in the Championship first. Newcastle will arrive in Brighton in the relegation zone, without a victory all season and with caretaker boss Graeme Jones in the dugout.

Eddie Howe’s arrival as Steve Bruce’s replacement is imminent after Unai Emery turned the Toon job down over concerns that sources at Newcastle were leaking what was happening in his negotiations.

That would have come as a serious blow to the Saudis, who are used to always getting what they want, if not through money than via fear and intimidation. Please do not accept any invitations to the Saudi consulate in Spain anytime soon, Mr Emery…

Once Howe is confirmed as Newcastle’s new boss, his only concern between now and May must be keeping the Toon Army in the Premier League.

Even the £320 billion that Newcastle have bankrolling them would not tempt Mbappé or Haaland to give up nine months of their careers for Tuesday night trips to Luton Town and Barnsley.

The contrast on-the-pitch at least between Brighton and Newcastle right now could not be starker. Brighton are flying, fighting for a spot in Europe and having just outplayed Liverpool for over an hour at Anfield. Newcastle are 19th and barely averaging a goal a game.

It is also reflected in recent results between the sides, Brighton having gone undefeated in their last eight games against Newcastle since the clubs were promoted to the Premier League together in 2017, conceding just once along the way.

Last season brought a 3-0 victory for Brighton at St James’ Park and a 3-0 victory for Brighton at the Amex. That was nothing short of a miracle in a season when the Albion beat no other team in the bottom six.

All of which means that we all surely know what is going to happen when the Toon come to Town. The only way Brighton could possibly follow up their heroic comeback on Merseyside is by losing to winless, managerless, Newcastle. Another one for our ridiculous Albion moments Twitter thread.

If (or when) the inevitable does happen and Newcastle leave Brighton with all the three points, we can at least take solace from the fact that our club is not being used to sportswash murders, wars, torture and human rights abuses.

When Newcastle take to the pitch at the Amex, remember Mr Khashoggi. Think of those 190-odd people executed every year and the gay community living in fear of their lives in Saudi Arabia.

Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and even the Premier League wants you to forget them all. Sorry, but that isn’t happening.