Stan Collymore next up in wanting Newcastle United fans brought to justice in court of public opinion

I always anticipated that when/if it ever eventually came about, Mike Ashley selling Newcastle United wouldn’t be a painless experience.

However, I never expected the Spanish Inquisition…

Stan Collymore is just the latest superhero fighting for world justice to question Newcastle United fans.

However, like the rest of the virtue signallers, he might have the questions but he doesn’t have any answers.

Stan Collymore getting all hot and bothered about the reportedly imminent Newcastle United takeover and says of NUFC fans: ‘What dismays me is how many of them are just happy to wave Bin Salman in ­without asking many, if any, questions.’

Collymore also stating: ‘But when a respected colleague stuck his head above the parapet on Twitter last week and told Newcastle fans that, just like their Manchester City ­counterparts, they can expect some tough questions in the years to come, no Toon supporters seemed remotely bothered.’

How ironic, basing a lot of his outrage on what is and isn’t said on Twitter, a platform he also extensively uses, a company where one of the biggest shareholders is one of the Saudi royal family.

Stan Collymore is so upset because ‘no Toon supporters seemed remotely bothered’ and are ‘just happy to wave Bin Salman in without asking many, if any, questions.’

Stan Collymore doesn’t say what he expects Newcastle fans to do.

Does he want us to put a human chain around Newcastle Airport or St James Park if the Saudis fly in?

Also, when exactly do we get a chance to ask Bin Salman the questions he is talking about?

I don’t think any questions need to be asked by Newcastle fans, any of us with a brain cell will already know that the Saudi Arabian regime has a lot to answer for. The same with Qatar and many others. I would also include countries such as China and Russia, where people get super rich via those countries’ natural resources and/or are backed in doing so by those holding political power, whilst the average person in those countries is left so poor.

We know that most owners of Premier League clubs don’t have clean hands but what is the answer?

The answer has to be some kind of proper system where collectively it is decided who should be allowed to own football clubs in England.

You know, like the government, or some kind of fit and proper person test…

To say ‘no Toon supporters’ care is embarrassing, many/most Newcastle fans do care about what happens in the world outside of St James Park and form views/opinions, vote accordingly in election, give to charity and so on.

If we had some form of proper democracy/power in English football clubs, Mike Ashley wouldn’t have lasted 13 years, the Saudi PIF may well not be waved through if we had a vote.

Just because Newcastle fans are celebrating the thought of Mike Ashley selling up and welcoming the idea of financial power and being allowed to compete at last, doesn’t equal not caring about world politics. What difference would it make if more Newcastle fans were taking to Twitter and posturing against the Saudi rulers/regime? It would have about as much impact as somebody who has refused to back the Saudi owned horses that have been running around racecourses in the UK for decades.

Will them buying Newcastle United make the political and human rights situation in Saudi Arabia better or worse? Difficult to see how it could make it any worse than it is at the minute, so probably staying the same at worst.

Stan Collymore seems to bizarrely think that he is able to see what is right and wrong better than your average Newcastle fan but in reality, what he needs to do is push for rules to be made, that protect fans and clubs and English football.

Newcastle fans were a little ahead of the game in recent years when the call from some was: ‘support the team, not the regime’…

Stan Collymore talking to The Mirror:

‘So Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is ­closing in on Newcastle United.

“I’m not only bagging Newcastle fans here, because they are just the latest in a long line of clubs to take the money without looking to see where it’s from…But they are in the spotlight, with Mike Ashley close to selling the Toon to a consortium led by financier Amanda Staveley that will see Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, of which Bin Salman is the chairman, take an 80 per cent controlling stake.

What dismays me is how many of them are just happy to wave Bin Salman in ­without asking many, if any, questions.

This, after all, is a bloke who was globally reviled less than two years ago after the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi – a crime the Crown Prince still hasn’t given any satisfactory answers on.

But when a respected colleague stuck his head above the parapet on Twitter last week and told Newcastle fans that, just like their Manchester City ­counterparts, they can expect some tough questions in the years to come, no Toon supporters seemed remotely bothered.

All he got were responses from ­people who’d changed their profile picture to Bin Salman or their names to Arabic – Geordies who thought they were being clever.

And the general theme was, ‘We don’t give a flying you-know-what because we’ve gone through hard times over the last 13 years under Ashley, so all that other stuff is irrelevant…What about Sheffield United, they are part owned by Saudis? Or what about City, this club or that club?’.

These people just don’t seem to get how very bad it is for our country’s sport, that one of our great clubs will be 80 per cent owned by a state which is regularly accused of ‘sportswashing’ – a term for cleaning ‘dirty money’ through investment in sport. I find it difficult to ­swallow that people aren’t more upset.’

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