Eddie Howe has a choice to make in the coming days which will define whether he is a man of principle, or a patsy for his Saudi paymasters.
The Newcastle coach can choose to give an honestly held opinion on Saudi Arabia executing 81 men at the weekend. He can give an opinion on the Saudi bombing of Yemen. And perhaps their poor human rights record. Or he can cower behind a statement that he is just a football coach, here to make Chris Wood score goals and Allan Saint-Maximin track back more .
The price on the ticket of being a head coach these days is that you become the public face of the club, and must be able to answer on all issues engulfing your club. Ideally we’d have Yasir Al-Rumayyan of the Public Investment Fund and 80pc owners at a press conference every week.
Or deal maker Amanda Staveley, who last week under intense questioning expressed sympathy that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovic was having his club Chelsea “taken off him.” But Howe, or Pep Guardiola for that matter - for it’s not a situation unique to Newcastle - is the front-man of a club with considerable ownership baggage.
In the current climate, saying you are just the coach, here to manage a football team, and nothing else matters - as is Howe’s stock avoidance tactic - simply doesn’t wash. Saying politics has nothing to do with football now is a cop out. Football has made itself political.
Football has plunged head first into politics in the past few years, after decades of telling players and journalists covering the game to stick to writing about goal and groin strains.
Last weekend Premier League clubs carried perimeter adverts saying they stood with Ukraine, against Russia’s inversion and killing. It’s the right stance, but it’s a very political, humanitarian stance. Every game players kneel in support of Black Lives Matter. An important sentiment for society, and a political stance against racism.
Marcus Rashford won a brilliant victory forcing the Tory Government to change its stance on free school meal vouchers during lockdown. Political.
Newcastle minority stakeholder Mehrdad Ghodoussi, broker of the Saudi deal with wife Staveley, tweeted a couple of weeks ago: “It’s hard to watch the news and not get emotional. My thoughts and prayers for the people of Ukraine. #PrayForUkraine.”
Fine sentiments indeed, echoed across the football community. But there's an elephant in the Toon boardroom. Under the leadership Mohamed Bin Salman, chairman of the state owned Public Investment Fund that owners 80pc of Newcastle, Yemen has been bombed. Just like in Ukraine, civilians are suffering.
Since March 2015, the Saudi coalition has launched 23,000 airstrikes, 10,000 civilians injured and 8,000 killed in Yemen, according to a range of official observers. A United Nations envoy reported a “sharp and dangerous escalation of the conflict” last month with 650 civilian casualties in January.
So if Newcastle execs are going to align themselves with anti-war peace sentiment in Ukraine, shouldn’t they look at what’s being done in Yemen too, and condemn it? Or are we just posturing on the populist issue, and ignoring the one that the paymasters want hidden.
Some of the same Newcastle fans - and politicians - who are now happy to watch Newcastle under Saudi ownership, protested against Mike Ashley citing poor working conditions at Sports Direct. Have we really gone from the protest politics about warehouse conditions in Shirebrook, to being silent and ambivalent to the barbaric execution of 81 men in Saudi Arabia last weekend?
Howe’s obviously in an awkward position. But if he has any spine, he should fearlessly give his opinion on these matters. I mean, he must have them, because he’s a smart, diligent coach, operating without ego, and doing a damn good job. In short he seems a straight-up guy, adjusting to life in the full glare of Newcastle. “It’s not Bournemouth”, as he admitted last week.
He could say he is aware of all the political issues around Saudi Arabia. That he reads up on them and is well aware of the concerns some have. If he doesn’t want to criticise his bosses, he could point out that PM Boris Johnson is visiting Saudi this week to beg them to turn up the oil supply and help reduce petrol prices.
He could say we have interdependent economies, do billions of pounds of trade with Saudi and they are a key strategic ally… and so maybe Boris Johnson is better placed than he is to raise human rights concerns.
He could say the Premier League were happy to let the PIF - and its chairman Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman - buy Newcastle, so ask them about it. But he must no longer come across as a mute pawn in the bubbling politics surrounding Newcastle United and Saudi Arabia.
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