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This was going to be a post about how I’m quitting Newcastle United.
Our blog and podcast stagnated along with the club. Under Mike Ashley, there was nothing to write or say about NUFC that hadn’t been written again and again by ourselves and others. I had a notion that one day perhaps we’d start up again, if ownership changed and any of us were still alive.
But Saudi Arabia? Owned – don’t kid yourself – by the country itself? A place where I, as a gay man, would be tortured or killed for who I am?
I don’t begrudge true Geordies their club. They didn’t ask for this ownership. For native fans to abandon NUFC over this would be tantamount to letting Saudi Arabia rip out the heart of the city. I hope the club soars to the top and the lifelong dreams of the native fans are finally realized, as the hypocrites from all the other rich clubs howl. Let’s face it. This is what soccer has become. It’s finance banking in shorts. The sport is awash in money tainted more ways than a person could count.
Not being a native-born Geordie, however, I can pick any other soccer club. Or none. My house lies five minutes from the arena of the best pro basketball team in the world, and I have season tickets. My state is home to the most legendary American football club, and I’m a part-owner. I don’t need Newcastle United.
Funny, then, that I’ve spent time each morning since the takeover reading every word I can find about it. I’ve followed this fiction-esque reversal of fortune as closely as any NUFC development since we began writing about the club. Hating myself for it. And doing it anyway.
At this point I could paste in a number of plausible rationalizations. I could talk about how Saudi money is everywhere in the life of everyone on the planet. I could talk about how the Saudi investment fund improves the lives of millions of Saudi people who are not that different from you or me, who support human rights, who detest torture and murder. I could talk about how a country is not the same as its government, and how Saudi Arabia is an important ally of the United States and England alike, in a complicated world.
The simple fact is, Newcastle United is in my heart, and I can’t get it out of there. My moral indignation is not as strong as the affinity I feel for this club and its city. I’m just not that righteous or noble or good.
I can’t speak for the others who have written on this blog. For myself, I’ll keep supporting NUFC. And use this platform, as events dictate, to hold the club accountable for not becoming a weapon against basic human rights. It’s up to Newcastle United’s football management – and its fans – to be at the forefront against racism, homophobia and all types of human persecution. Otherwise we are complicit with the extremists of the government of the country that is ultimately the owner of our club.
With that, howay. Let the new era begin.