Saturday, January 08, 2022
Newcastle is not making any headway
The new rich embarrass themselves against third division clubs
Newcastle United is owned by a Saudi fund that has more cash than the biggest clubs in the world. Much more money. But success has not yet been bought with these funds. On the contrary: everything is getting worse and worse.
For the newly rich English football club Newcastle United, things are still not going well in terms of sport. The table penultimate of the Premier League also embarrassed himself in the FA Cup to the best of his ability. With newcomer Kieran Trippier in the starting line-up, the Magpies lost 1-0 (0-0) against third division Cambridge United in their own stadium. Joe Ironside scored in the 56th minute for the blatant underdog, who moved into the fourth round of the cup.
Newcastle United was taken over by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a Saudi Arabian state fund, at the beginning of October. With an estimated total assets of 370 billion euros, PIF is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world – and is endowed with a multiple of the financial power than, for example, the billionaire owners of Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester City. Newcastle United is therefore considered to be the richest football club in the world.
“We are very proud to be the new owners of Newcastle United, one of the most famous clubs in English football,” said Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of the club, on the day the acquisition was announced on the NUFC website. The new owners are said to have paid around 350 million euros and want to achieve a lot. The British businesswoman Amanda Staveley, who sits next to Al-Ramayyan on the board of Newcastle United, enthused in an interview with “Sky”: “Newcastle are the best team in the world. We want to win trophies, of course. In the Premier League and in Europe. “
“In this case it is unbelievable”
Shortly thereafter, the club separated from his coach Steve Bruce and signed Eddie Howe. But under the leadership of the 43-year-old, the sporting situation has hardly improved so far. The traditional club has only won one of 19 league games this season. In the Premier League, relegation threatens, in the cup it was now a disgrace. The new owners will have to follow the 350 million euros in the transfer window that has just opened in order to at least keep the club in the league.
Kieran Trippier was probably only the first of numerous investments that Newcastle United will now make: The defender only moved from Atlético Madrid to Newcastle on Friday for 15 million euros. The English newspaper “The Telegraph” reported last year that the Magpies were only planning to spend “only” around 60 million euros this winter. But the sporting need is great. It is quite possible that something has changed in this regard in the meantime. In view of the financial power behind the club, the imagination knows no bounds, the German national players Marc-André ter Stegen, Niklas Süle and Timo Werner have already been associated with the Magpies. And of course Erling Haaland too. But before one can dream of additions of this magnitude, they must first prevent the sporting total loss.
Christian Streich, coach of SC Freiburg, commented on the takeover of the traditional club in disbelief: “There are always things happening in football that have exceeded all limits. In this case it is unbelievable who is involved in this consortium,” said the 56-year-old last October. It is known that the consortium includes people “who are involved in serious human rights violations,” added Streich. “I have to say that if people have a problem with that, then I can count myself among those people.” In a survey, 93 percent of the supporters of the Magpies were satisfied with the takeover.