The righteous hook of hypocrisy – sportswashing and selective reporting!

So now we know, the biggest fight in British boxing for decades has been made, Joshua Vs Fury! I know what you’re thinking, wait a minute this is a football site right? Well hang on, I’m getting there. As I said, the heavyweight clash between the perfect athlete Anthony Joshua, and the much loved Gypsy King Tyson Fury has been of the most anticipated fights for many a year, but has it been booked for Wembley? Oh no! It’s in Saudi Arabia.

On August 14th, both these warriors will step into a ring to determine who’s the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, but why Saudi Arabia? Money of course! Do they care that boxing fans can’t attend such a huge bout between British fighters on UK soil? Nope! Why would they? Despite fans being able to return to sporting venues, and the glorious emotional buzz we all saw from the FA cup at the weekend, that means nothing when it comes to the wealth the Saudis can produce for the purse attached to this fight, but what does this have to do with football? I’m about to tell you.

As we all know the Saudis have been in the football news for over a year now, and mainly associated with one club in particular, our club Newcastle United. We’ve all seen mainstream media outlets like Sky Sports, talk sport & alike shine a light on Saudi Arabia, and the PIF and Mohammed bin Salman in particular. Of course, the questions around moralistic integrity are 100% valid, Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a great human rights record that’s for sure, and of course there’s the tragic case of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who’s murder was allegedly ordered by Prince bin Salman himself, but this doesn’t seem to be an issue when boxing is concerned does it? I wonder why?

The right hook of hypocrisy has firmly been landed in the chin of Newcastle fans, and there’ll be’ more and more punches in the lead up to this fight. For me this again shows the rank hypocrisy displayed by mainstream media, as I’ve written in many previous pieces, they hitch their wagons to what suits them, morals be damned! There will be no questions asked about the choice of venue for this fight, in fact it will be equally lauded, as the prospect of a Saudi owned Newcastle has been lambasted. They won’t invite’ Khashoggi’s grieving fianc’ to offer her heart filled objections, nor will they wheel out human rights lawyers to try the Saudi regime by media, because it doesn’t suit their cause right now, they’ll glorify this bout and it’s location, like Saudi Arabian cheerleaders.

Yet again these actions only serve to further enhance Newcastle fans theory that the decision to block the takeover was mainly down to the Premier league not wanting to upset the apple cart between themselves and the Qatari media giants Bein sports, not to mention the alleged objections by the so called “big clubs” who didn’t want a cash rich Newcastle United becoming a serious threat, a huge club that could crash the party and eat the cake, and how did those clubs repay their loyalty? They knifed them in the back, and tried to bigger off to join the European Super League!

So, in summary, and without fanning the flames of this takeover fire that rages on amongst the toon army, sanctioning this fight, and mainstream media throwing as much support behind it as a haymaker from either champ, only further highlights why the takeover should be allowed to go ahead, the only thing standing in its way, is the weasley figure of Richard Masters, the current Shithouse representative of a corrupt institution whom is trying desperately to please their chums in Qatar and at top four boardroom level, but if Newcastle and Mike Ashley land a punch in arbitration, they’ll have no choice but to concede the fight, and like boxing and formula one, embrace the investment and wealth of Saudi Arabian money, and with it a transformed Newcastle United.

Chris Currie -‘ @wig82