04 March 2023 , 19:00
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“What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.
“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small bit clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawking at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”
At St James’ Park, they celebrated this seminal Sir Bobby Robson quote on what would have been the great man’s 90th birthday. A fortnight later, Amanda Staveley described Newcastle United as a ‘brand’. A brand.
Quite what Sir Bobby would have made of that, who knows? Actually, we all know. It would have been the same reaction to something entitled the Business of Football Summit - at which Stavelely was speaking - and it would have been the same reaction to her suggestions Newcastle would go down the ‘multi-club’ path.
By multi-club, Staveley was referring to the trend of big clubs owning, or part-owning, a stable of smaller outfits across the globe. But if ever there was a stand-alone club, surely it is Sir Bobby’s Newcastle United?
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By its nature, by its fanbase, by its geographical position at the summit of a great city, it stands alone. But Staveley, intoxicated by bringing the Saudis to the Premier League and the decent form of the football team, cannot help herself.
Are you up in arms about Amanda Staveley's plan? Have your say in the comments!
Amanda Staveley is weighing up pursuing a multi-club ownership model (Newcastle United via Getty Images)Newcastle have won a few games in the Premier League, got to the final of the Carabao Cup and, all of a sudden, it’s all about ‘brand’ and ‘multi-club’ and ‘growth’. Here’s an idea. Before you can run with the commercial giants of the football world, learn how to walk on the treadmill of winning or regularly contending for major trophies.
That is what Manchester City have done, to be fair. Staveley and everyone else in the St James’ Park hierarchy might soon have their hands full as a golf court case hears evidence that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) that owns Newcastle United is, in fact, a Saudi state operation.
The Premier League, when approving the takeover, said it had “legally binding assurances” that the Saudi state would not have control of the club. And they actually managed to say that with a straight face.
But if the Premier League do look again at the takeover - as other Premier League clubs seem keen for them to do - it will be a long and complex affair.
In the meantime, a word of advice for the Newcastle United board. The fans are surely not interested in growing the brand, they are not interested in buying Dijon (the French club, not the mustard) or Slask Wroclaw.
They want a winning team, they believe they are unique and they want to remain unique. And Sir Bobby would have wanted the same.