The Saudis use public relations and all aspects of life to ensure the greatest possible influence on public opinion in Britain.
In October of the year 2021, Newcastle United became the richest football club in the world when the Premier League announced that Saudi Arabia is the new owner of the club, in a deal worth $415 million. The deal was done with the help of an American public relations company that worked to cheer the Saudi regime and polishing his image.
The deal that saved the economically faltering club sparked a lot of confusion among British public opinion in general, and the Newcastle United fan association in particular. The League simply did not like the takeover of the club by a bloodthirsty dictator and launched extensive campaigns in this regard.
Before the regime acquired Newcastle Club, the Saudi ambassador, Prince Khaled bin Bandar, visited Newcastle, and watched one of the club’s matches. A number of Saudi officials also followed the club’s account on Twitter, such as Prince Abdullah Aziz bin Turki Al Saud, Saud Al-Faisal and the Director General of State Security.
Surprisingly, the media did not report the event at all, and many of them no longer talk about the violations of the Saudi human rights system since the purchase deal took place. What is also shocking is that none of the representatives in parliament and other councils has taken a stand on the issue, even the chairman of the board of directors of New Castle made promises about investments in Saudi Arabia, and all attempts to oppose this decision were silenced, and relations between the club and the Kingdom have strengthened since that time, as the team and coach went to Saudi Arabia at a time when the regime was killing children and launching an attack on Yemen.
Buying the club is one of the many deals with which the regime is trying to wash its image, like the NEOM project and others, and seek the help of politicians and journalists to establish its narrative based on deception. Today, the matter has become easier and more misleading with the use of social media, and in light of the enormous financial capabilities, people have no ability to change this matter.
The heads of the English club consider that there is no ability to change what happened, and they justify that with the presence of other teams owned by Arab countries such as the UAE. Other officials promote the ability to influence Saudi Arabia and transform it into a liberal state based on these deals, trying to ignore the fact that the Saudi regime executed eighty-one people one day before a match game for the club
, and despite the penetration of the narrative promoted by the regime, there are still many Newcastle fans who decisively reject all practices of the Saudi regime.
The Newcastle fan club Association launched a group on Facebook and Twitter to launch campaigns aimed at stopping the washing that Saudi Arabia is doing in the world of sports. Many meetings were held in the past period, and during the meetings they were trying to document the violations that Saudi Arabia is constantly practicing in its war on Yemen.
It was noticed that the sharp voices that objected to this deal were absent, but the club president and all those responsible for this deal were criticized in other countries such as Germany and Finland, and this confirms the global characteristic of football, and also confirms the inability to separate football from the rest of human affairs, and they are still as fun club association and human rights defenders trying to expand and reach higher levels. Some articles and interviews have been published in magazines.
The documentation that we did reach the international media, but these materials were not published in the local media. We also got access to radio and television programs, and today we have become a reference on the issue of laundry in the sports aspect.
In the campaigns that we launched, we called for many demonstrations and chanted slogans, and before the start of the New Castle match with Chelsea, and on the anniversary of the execution of eighty-one people, we held demonstrations in an attempt to shed light on what is happening.
The most surprising thing is that the local media did not cover our movements at a time when international media did, and although we are not sure of the amount of pressure exerted by the Saudi regime or the club's management, we cannot deny the existence of this pressure. While we see that the broad interaction with this issue in British society is still limited, the movement carried out by the fan club associations in Germany against dictatorial regimes is promising. This movement calls for optimism in our ability to change this reality and move to a higher level, at a time when the power of money controls sports clubs by pumping money.
Drawing the attention of Newcastle fans to the practices and nature of the system that owns their club is obligatory and self-evident. Communicating with the victims, or sending their stories and challenging the ability of the Saudi dictators to control the way they are told, is a necessity to reduce the pressure of the machine of deception and misinformation. Victims and their families should start by sending their stories to the president of Newcastle FC, because he claims not to have any information incriminating Saudi Arabia in the human rights file.
Today, New Castle United establishes a women's club, while the system it owns systematically and permanently violates women's rights. As an association, we try to shed light on feminist activists such as Salma Al-Shehab and Noura Al-Qahtani. Unfortunately, however, some fans are repeating the Saudi regime and its lies and consider these women terrorists, and this is a direct result of the success of this regime's propaganda, which uses the club to divert society's attention from basic issues.
Our responsibility today is solidarity with human rights, and our moral duty requires defining an effective stance towards people who appear to be bloodthirsty running this club. This is the true spirituality and the true role that football should not give up.
It is high time that public opinion listens to the voice of the oppressed and those who demand human rights after listening to the voice of the dictator for a long time. The battle is great, and we do not have the necessary equipment, we lack money and power, but we are sure that we will win.
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*كلمة جون هيرد في المؤتمر السنوي الثالث لضحايا الانتهاكات في المملكة العربية السعودية الذي عقد بتاريخ 9و 10 ديسمبر 2022.