{"id":64,"date":"2024-01-02T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/?p=64"},"modified":"2024-01-02T13:00:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T13:00:36","slug":"newcastle-fan-claims-the-issue-of-saudi-sports-washing-has-everything-to-do-with-us-and-urges-a-challenge-to-the-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/2024\/01\/02\/newcastle-fan-claims-the-issue-of-saudi-sports-washing-has-everything-to-do-with-us-and-urges-a-challenge-to-the-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle fan claims the issue of Saudi sports washing has \u201ceverything to do with us\u201d and urges a challenge to the ownership\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
<\/div>

Ross Cashmore<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Despite being a boyhood Newcastle United fan, hailing from Gateshead, John Andrew Hird insists that his team\u2019s recent success is bittersweet because you can\u2019t hide from the fact that the investment comes from \u201cone of the bloodiest dictatorships in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hird is one of the key figures in the NUFC Against Sportswashing movement, which was formed in reaction to the Saudi Arabian PIF that took the club over from Mike Ashley in October 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movement is one that aims for football democracy, to represent the values of the working class that originally founded the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hird doesn\u2019t incite a boycotting of the club, but pledges for the MPs, the fanzines and the local media to speak up like they promised they would before the takeover was completed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnited with Pride, the LGBTQ+ supporters group, have a relationship with the club but don\u2019t say anything about the ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems as though the Saudi regime has silenced people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hird expressed the importance of not \u201cworshipping the accomplished fact\u201d. He suggested that the stance that fans can\u2019t make a difference is one of pessimism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUFC Against Sportswashing\u2019s close relation with Saudi activist Lina al-Hathloul is supplementary to this view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been told by Saudi human rights activists that one occasion of raising banners for imprisoned Saudi women at St James\u2019 Park would have a massive effect.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hird\u2019s faith in the power of fan\u2019s voices is clearly undeniable. He looks at how the proposed European Super League came to a collapse due to fan reaction back in April 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NUFC Against Sportswashing also believe in the importance of figures in the public eye. Hird considers it acceptable to question Eddie Howe and \u201cinvolve\u201d him with the issues. \u201cThe chairman of the club is protected so who else can we ask?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hird scoffed at Eddie Howe saying he will only speak about football to then later answer questions about the Sycamore Gap tree that was chopped down. Hird recited some fans\u2019 comments online: \u201cyou will talk about a chopped up tree but you won\u2019t talk about chopped up people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst the movement considers fans\u2019 voices as important, it considers a voice like Howe\u2019s  or club legend Alan Shearer\u2019s, as being able to make an immense impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFans have an unrealistic view of what one little statement from them could do and I don\u2019t think they would ever sack Howe for it. It would prove that their ownership is about sports washing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hird mentions the \u2018Tyneside bubble\u2019, and how rival fans aren\u2019t as envious of Newcastle\u2019s recent success as the Geordies may think. He instead thinks that fans are more concerned for the direction the game is heading if these ownerships continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the club\u2019s upturn of results over the past two seasons haven\u2019t actually manifested into any silverware, Hird speaks of how he and fellow member Andrew Page at NUFC Against Sportswashing believe future success would be \u201ctarnished\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWinning in consciousness of what we know and the people we have spoken to, you can\u2019t go along with it\u201d, is the remark made by Page at a group meeting, as Hird describes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These ardent beliefs which are held by the community are ones clearly strong enough to constrain their support. Whether some more of the fan base can replicate these beliefs if some silverware does come to St James\u2019 Park in the near future remains to be seen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite being a boyhood Newcastle United fan, hailing from Gateshead, John Andrew Hird insists that his team\u2019s recent success is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-football-stories","wpcat-12-id","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/ross-cashmore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}