The Only Way is Ethics
A few people on the transfer forum have mentioned that no club can compete now without oil money, or Saudi money, which is essentially the same thing. This season has seen a lot of footballers who proudly wore the “One love” armband and fronted the “no to racism” campaign join a league in a country with serious human rights issues.
I imagine a lot of Newcastle fans who were against the idea of a Saudi takeover are quite pleased at their Champions’ League placing, and are slowly going back to describing the club using “we” as opposed to “they”, and nobody seems to consider Man City when talking about the “selling your soul for oil money” thing.
My question is this:
How do you think you’d react if West Ham were bought by the Saudi Arabian royal family, and started buying Haaland, Bellingham et al, and assembling a £2bn first squad?
Let’s say the first season would see a Champions’ League Spot, and winning the league within 3 years. But pre-season tournaments would all be sports-washing exercises in Saudi, and West Ham would slowly put an end to involvement in pride events.
I’ll post my thoughts later, but feel free to hypothesise.
I imagine a lot of Newcastle fans who were against the idea of a Saudi takeover are quite pleased at their Champions’ League placing, and are slowly going back to describing the club using “we” as opposed to “they”, and nobody seems to consider Man City when talking about the “selling your soul for oil money” thing.
My question is this:
How do you think you’d react if West Ham were bought by the Saudi Arabian royal family, and started buying Haaland, Bellingham et al, and assembling a £2bn first squad?
Let’s say the first season would see a Champions’ League Spot, and winning the league within 3 years. But pre-season tournaments would all be sports-washing exercises in Saudi, and West Ham would slowly put an end to involvement in pride events.
I’ll post my thoughts later, but feel free to hypothesise.
Comments
Frankly, as a West Ham fan, I’m barely hanging in as it is with the current lack of direction in the leadership. If the club was bought by oil money, I don’t think I’d spend another penny on them, and I would definitely qualify my support “I used to support West Ham until they were bought by xxxxx, and I’ll support them as soon as they see the error of their ways”.
If we were bought by a murderous regime/ or some US billionaires conglomerate I would feel very, very conflicted. How do you turn your back on a club that’s been a fabric of your life since you were a very young kid?
I have a very good mate who is a Chelsea fan (no not that one) who struggled with it when Abramavic bought them but when the success came he bought into it, it’s his club just as West Ham is mine , I don’t know that I could do that but man it would be hard to just walk away.
I would imagine there are plenty of fans who condemned the idea that are now excited for the CL games and have largely 'forgotten' the source of their success.
As we've seen with Jordan Henderson recently, moral compasses can be swayed by £700k a week. I suspect some fans' compasses can be equally swayed by success on the pitch.
But as with Slacker and alderz, it's too easy to say I'd walk away because we're not in that boat.