Youri Mulder believes that Newcastle United should never have agreed to the multimillion-dollar takeover by the Saudi Arabian investment fund PIF. The analyst calls Monday evening at Rondo the years of war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen as the reason and thus draws a parallel with the war between Russia and Ukraine. Mulder says he hopes that the war will wake up call means for unions and clubs in similar situations; table mates Jan van Halst and Marco van Basten doubt its feasibility.
“There are places in football where a lot of money is involved, where clubs or football associations sometimes have something like: ‘This is so good for us, let’s not judge it'”, Mulder begins. The analyst soon mentions Newcastle’s name. “A lot of money is going to Newcastle, and those people are okay with that. Hopefully what is happening now is a sign for associations and clubs to put a stop to that. That countries cannot just become owners of a club. “
Table companion Van Halst openly has his doubts about the feasibility of Mulder’s proposal. “I completely agree with you. But then football associations must at some point investigate whether the money spent on such a club ends up well.” Ruud Gullit claims to know that it is. “That is almost impossible to do, Ruud,” says Van Halst. “You say: they do that, but then they haven’t done it right.”
Van Basten joins in. “Of course it is: there is always something happening all over the world. Hassle. Then you would no longer be able to play football, so to speak.” Van Basten turns to Mulder. “You are talking about Yemen, but there is war all over the world somewhere throughout the year.” Mulder counters: “But then as a club you can say: we don’t want to belong to that, we don’t do that.” Van Basten acknowledges that ‘that is typical at Newcastle’.
Related
More sports news