Poor Lambs

[BillyStubbsTears]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53601334

Newcastle fans "heartbroken" and "devastated" at takeover by a company run by one of the world's most disgusting despots falling through.

I'm not sure how they will ever recover from this.

[phil old leake]

I genuinely feel sorry for them and the club
Once again their is mass hypocrisy
I can understand to a degree about the pirating issue but everything else is just nonsense in my view
Yes their human rights history is poor. The country has moved on. Women there now have more rights ( not enough but it’s moving slowly)
Do we still buy oil from them. YES
Do we still sell them weapons YES
Do we still use their money when they invest in other UK options YES
There is no need for this to have taken so long to decide.  The FA have got what they wanted. They’ve sat on the fence and it’s gone away so they haven’t had to make an unpopular decision
Big investment in Newcastle would have been great for the Premiership and created another club potentially able to challenge for trophies making it a more interesting watch

[idler]

They'll stick with their current despot.
I remember us dodging a bullet with Anton Johnson.

[selby]

Forget the others, the top clubs don't want somebody coming along to spoil their party.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Phil

Saudi Arabia have moved on, on human rights issues?

MBS sent a hit squad to abduct a journalist who had criticised the prince, and slowly dismember him with a bone saw in the basement of the Saudi embassy in Ankara. The Turks had bugged the embassy and made sound recording of the journalist's screams. I would disown the Rovers in a second if a monster like that was associated with us.

Each to their own.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Makes me sick to the stomach how they can be so blind. All they can think about is potentially becoming richer than Man City.

Just because these despots are on paper rich beyond imagination doesn't mean they're pouring in their own wealth. If you read their statement, their plan relied on 'investments' and have said that funding has been jeopardised due to the crisis.

So glad it turned out this way and I hope Newcastle fans have a reality check. Ashley is a Saint compared to this lot!

[phil old leake]

I’m not saying anyone against it is wrong but all these stories about them are coming from the same locations as the weapons of mass destruction
Again these people are not perfect and I’m not saying they should be allowed in but if all the stories are so true and proven why was it not just a case of NO
There is obviously something deeper going on and the FA should be more upfront about it

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Why? More to the point, the Saudi's should be more upfront about proving their innocence and having no links to the murder(s) and the piracy! The EPL have given them ample chance and they've walked. Says alot to me.

[phil old leake]

That does not excuse the FA dragging their feet if it was so cut and dry

[BillyStubbsTears]

I’m not saying anyone against it is wrong but all these stories about them are coming from the same locations as the weapons of mass destruction

What?

[redwine]

I’m not saying anyone against it is wrong but all these stories about them are coming from the same locations as the weapons of mass destruction

What?

Didn't you know, Billy. Alastair Campbell was asked the Burnley board to scupper the deal by providing a dossier.

One less club for them to worry about.

[PDX_Rover]

Newcastle are one of those clubs that have a massive supporter base and based on that feel they deserve a place at the top table. But they’ve achieved f**k all for decades really...

We’ve achieved more.

[Monkcaster_Rover]

Phil

Saudi Arabia have moved on, on human rights issues?

MBS sent a hit squad to abduct a journalist who had criticised the prince, and slowly dismember him with a bone saw in the basement of the Saudi embassy in Ankara. The Turks had bugged the embassy and made sound recording of the journalist's screams. I would disown the Rovers in a second if a monster like that was associated with us.

Each to their own.

Evening Billy,

Bit grim - but, have you got the link to this particular article/news item.

Not heard of it before & would like to have a delve into it.

Cheers!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Monk

Google "Killing of Jamal Khashoggi" for a start.

To be fair, I did a disservice to the Saudi death squad that was sent by MBS to murder Khashoggi. They didn't dismember him alive. He went to the embassy to get a visa to go to Saudi Arabia to get married and was taken into a basement, strangled and THEN dismembered with a bone saw.

So maybe Newcastle fans shouldn't have worried about having MBS running their wonderful club. He's not that bad after all. He only has his opponents physically carved up AFTER he's had them murdered.

[RoversAlias]

I'll just add as well to Monkcaster (and anyone unfamiliar with the Khashoggi case) that it was a huge, huge international story at the time and led to a great deal of scrutiny being levied at big money organisations, in and out of sport, doing business with Saudi Arabia. Right up to and including the United States government.

So there is plenty written about it if you're interested in looking into it.

[wilts rover]

Whilst the Khashoggi murder is high up on the international political agenda there is a more pertinant UK connection that should not be overlooked.

One of Theresa May's more disgraceful decisions (and there were many) was to refuse to release a report into the sources of funding of UK Islamic fundamentalists and terrorism.

It's is 'thought' and we don't know because we haven't seen it, that the reason the report was never released is because it confirmed that Saudi Arabia was the source of this funding.

Now I am sure that if you wished you could make out a case for a muderous dictatorship that funds terrorism in the UK to be allowed to own an English football club - but I can see why the PL were somewhat reluctant to sanction it.

[Monkcaster_Rover]

Cheers gents. I'll have a read about it today.

[sha66y]

I genuinely feel sorry for them and the club
Once again their is mass hypocrisy
I can understand to a degree about the pirating issue but everything else is just nonsense in my view
Yes their human rights history is poor. The country has moved on. Women there now have more rights ( not enough but it’s moving slowly)
Do we still buy oil from them. YES
Do we still sell them weapons YES
Do we still use their money when they invest in other UK options YES
There is no need for this to have taken so long to decide.  The FA have got what they wanted. They’ve sat on the fence and it’s gone away so they haven’t had to make an unpopular decision
Big investment in Newcastle would have been great for the Premiership and created another club potentially able to challenge for trophies making it a more interesting watch

Phil
Having recently lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for 42 months , I can assure you of one thing ....the propaganda regarding women’s rights and equalities issuing forth from that vile place is just to appease the west..

I watched the same programme......

colleagues based in the northern territories, assure me that most regions outside the capitol have not begun nor have the inclination to accept the very idea of women’s rights........


 

[sheffield exile1]

Also there are a lot of Yemeni's who might have something to say about the western media reporting on their "civil war" which is basically the Saud's bombing hospitals, schools and other military targets... Strange civil war that one...

[Colemans Left Hook]

Monk

Google "Killing of Jamal Khashoggi" for a start.

To be fair, I did a disservice to the Saudi death squad that was sent by MBS to murder Khashoggi. They didn't dismember him alive. He went to the embassy to get a visa to go to Saudi Arabia to get married and was taken into a basement, strangled and THEN dismembered with a bone saw.

So maybe Newcastle fans shouldn't have worried about having MBS running their wonderful club. He's not that bad after all. He only has his opponents physically carved up AFTER he's had them murdered.

"allegedly"  a "condition" of the" takeover" was " that they change their black and white stripes for a harlequin style shirt"   a "quarterised shirt "  (think about it)  ..." hung drawn and ...."

[idler]

More like Chop Chop Squares.☹️

[drfchound]

I would say more like a polo club shirt.

[rabjohns]

Billy,Amanda Staveley who leads the takeover spent a lot of her childhood in Doncaster , you never know.

[phil old leake]

Sha66y. If that’s the case and you have first hand knowledge i will stand corrected

[BahrainRover]

Sha66y,
I live (formerly Bahrain) and work in Dhahran Saudi Arabia since 2013. I see a very different picture of Saudi than the one you portray.
Massive changes have taken place with in this time, and Saudi is a very different place now to back when I first arrived. I myself used to have a negative image of the country before working here, obviously media led, I actually enjoy living here. In my work place the office is easily 50% mixed, and Women hold all the top positions including director.

[drfchound]

Sha66y,
I live (formerly Bahrain) and work in Dhahran Saudi Arabia since 2013. I see a very different picture of Saudi than the one you portray.
Massive changes have taken place with in this time, and Saudi is a very different place now to back when I first arrived. I myself used to have a negative image of the country before working here, obviously media led, I actually enjoy living here. In my work place the office is easily 50% mixed, and Women hold all the top positions including director.

I would say that a first hand opinion like the above is probably more accurate than trusting what is written in the papers.

[BahrainRover]

Thank you Hound.
I have seen many come here with a preset image of Saudi.
Sha66y I see the same. but yet he spend 48 months in a vile place? I wouldn't. What gets me is people judging and condemning a place they have never been to or experienced. When not here I live in Mindanao Southern Philippines also a UK government no go. In both countries I have never experience nothing but welcome and acceptance. I feel safer here than anywhere I have been in the world.
The Saudi people are beautiful if get to know, everything is family and thats the most important. Something we lost years ago.

[phil old leake]

Nice to hear some comments from first hand experience

[phil old leake]

How come this debacle took so long without being sorted out and the situation at Charlton was much quicker

[sha66y]

Sha66y,
I live (formerly Bahrain) and work in Dhahran Saudi Arabia since 2013. I see a very different picture of Saudi than the one you portray.
Massive changes have taken place with in this time, and Saudi is a very different place now to back when I first arrived. I myself used to have a negative image of the country before working here, obviously media led, I actually enjoy living here. In my work place the office is easily 50% mixed, and Women hold all the top positions including director.

I obviously can only speak from my experience and that of my ex colleagues still working on the military base at Taif...

We did and do envy those living on the beautiful compounds down the hill, however .....once you head up the escarpment, you come to a little shitty City called Taif......

Taif is a fairly new city I believe,  that was created to bring the Bedouin out of the desert.....( not sure f this is fact,)  I tried to do research on this fascinating idea but the Saudis I worked with were just ignorantly dumb....

I did visit one of the Dutch/Italian compounds down in Jeddah which though a little shabby was a million times better than the cold grey military compound I resided...lol....

and to see the “Risk to life” board showing........ “ risk imminent”  every morning as we exited the compound tended to get the heart racing a bit....lol...

My colleagues inform me that all is the same and there just  aren’t any females doing anything apart from .....existing....