This may have sneaked under the radar but Bloom who owns Brighton who will be in Europa League next season also owns a Belgian club who are in the qualifying rounds for same competition I remember from somewhere wasn’t there same kind of issue about the RB teams once competing in Europe but they got the green light from UEFA?? Seems there is rules and other rules….
To be honest yes. All this ****ing around with buying up 4 Saudi clubs and then going in for some big name players suggests to me converting us into one of the top clubs in the UK is not really going to be the focus of their future efforts. The takeover and our subsequent fairytale escape from relegation followed by a Champions League place has got them some great publicity but I think they have much bigger plans for a Middle Eastern involvement in global football.
We were always just a small cog in their overall ambitions. We can give them great exposure though and the stuff they'll inevitably do around the city will help too. Chelsea were going to spend regardless of whether those players were sold or not. Saudi wants big name Muslim players to promote their league alongside Ronaldo etc. I'm not fussed. If they still invest in us, we are good to go
Totally agree. Their ambitions to be a leading global sporting brand is huge. NUFC is more like a little side hobby for them compared with the money they will put into F1, golf, boxing, their own football league, etc. As much as we might like to think we will be massive, we are not PIF's main priority. It's still a million miles ahead of where we were under Ashley, but perhaps not quite what some fans might be dreaming of.
I agree. I think they have realised though that with FFP there is less scope for the ridiculous extravagance of loading us up global superstars and will concentrate on their own league with that. In a way its good for us because it will mean that we can grow organically and are putting all the right tools in place to do this. I reckon our biggest challenge is growing our revenue so that we can compete on the top players without breaking FFP rules.
That was a canny read until you mentioned “organic” This should be used only in reference to vegetables!!!
It would appear the Americans are starting to take an interest in Newcastle and they'll market the club in Saudi until Nufc is the club most of them follow. It won't be easy as you say, but people will start picking Newcastle ahead of the usual in other countries. I'd Newcastle win something it'll take off I would imagine.
