Gary Neville has called on Newcastle United's owners to answer the 'difficult' questions that Eddie Howe has faced on Saudi Arabia's appalling human rights record.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan penned an open letter on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the buyout - providing more regular communication in a single statement than supporters were used to in the Ashley era - but the Newcastle chairman has not yet spoken to reporters in the UK or addressed legitimate human rights concerns since the buyout.
Given how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the chairman of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns an 80% stake in the club, those questions are not going to go away. In the year since the takeover, after all, 81 people were executed in a single day in Saudi Arabia last March while a Saudi court recently jailed Salma al-Shehab, a women's rights activist studying at Leeds University, for 34 years because of her tweets.
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Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah told ChronicleLive last week that 'I don't think any fan can be happy where the money is coming from' while Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said 'the club is still being used to help sportswash'. Howe acknowledged that he could understand why some people were uncomfortable with the source of the money, but the Newcastle boss stressed last week he 'had to have faith' in the Premier League's owners' and directors' test, which ratified the takeover.
Neville does not think it is 'fair' that Howe has to 'answer the difficult questions when the ultimate owner of Newcastle never has to show up'. The former Manchester United captain wants a forum set up, like the Commons Select Committee, where those at the very top can be asked questions twice a year in the hope that could 'potentially influence change'.
"I've always said and maintained I would rather be around the table with them and try and impact change and try and highlight issues than be on the other side of the fence and don't let them in and point to other issues because these are complex issues in the whole of the Middle East," Neville told his self-titled podcast. "There's a Qatar World Cup coming up. There's Saudi Arabian ownership. There's Abu Dhabi ownership in Manchester and questions asked about that on a continuous basis.
"The reality of it is these questions are not going to go away, but I don't believe they should actually be always directed to the football coach. The football coach has come there to work and do his job as a football coach. He should not have to answer the difficult questions all the time.
"I'm not saying he should not get asked questions. Of course he should - he's a football manager for a huge football club. But the owners, the executives, should be the ones that are taking these questions and the Premier League as well in my opinion because they let the Saudi Arabian ownership in. However, I can't see how they couldn't let them in because they have already allowed state ownership with Abu Dhabi."
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