Kronprins Mohammed bin Salman och Newcastles arena. (TT)

Ligan röstar för att blockera Newcastle-sponsorer

Den engelska fotbollsligan har enats om ett tillfälligt förbud mot sponsoravtal med företag som har kopplingar till Newcastles nya saudiska ägare, rapporterar The Athletic.

Endast Newcastle själva röstade emot förslaget och Manchester City lade ned sin röst.

I början av oktober köpte den saudiska investeringsfonden PIF, där kronprins Mohammed bin Salman sitter som vd, Newcastle för 3,5 miljarder kronor. Därmed fick klubben de rikaste ägarna i hela Premier League, vilket fansen hoppas ska generera nya framgångar.

Kritiker har dock ifrågasatt om affären kan leda till att den saudiska staten kan kontrollera klubben, och Amnestys brittiska ordförande Sacha Deshmukh kallar det ett ”bittert slag mot försvarare av mänskliga rättigheter”.

Läs även:

bakgrund
 
Newcastle United
Wikipedia (en)
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End. The team plays its home matches at St James' Park in the centre of Newcastle. Following the Taylor Report's requirement that all Premier League clubs have all-seater stadiums, the ground was modified in the mid-1990s and currently has a capacity of 52,305. The club has been a member of the Premier League for all but three years of the competition's history, spending 89 seasons in the top flight as of May 2021, and have never dropped below English football's second tier since joining the Football League in 1893. Newcastle have won four League titles, six FA Cups and a Charity Shield, as well as the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup, the ninth highest total of trophies won by an English club. The club's most successful period was between 1904 and 1910, when they won an FA Cup and three of their League titles. Newcastle were relegated in 2009, and again in 2016. The club won promotion at the first time of asking each time, returning to the Premier League, as Championship winners, in 2010 and 2017. Newcastle have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club Sunderland, with whom they have contested the Tyne–Wear derby since 1898. The club's traditional kit colours are black and white striped shirts, black shorts and black socks. Their crest has elements of the city coat of arms, which features two grey hippocamps. Before each home game, the team enters the field to "Local Hero", and "Blaydon Races" is also sung during games.The club was owned by Mike Ashley from 2007 until 2021, who succeeded long-term chairman Sir John Hall. The club is the 17th-highest revenue producing club in the world in terms of annual revenue, generating €169.3 million in 2015. Newcastle's highest placing was in 1999, when they were the fifth-highest revenue producing football club in the world, and second in England only behind Manchester United. On October 7 2021, the club was bought for £300 million by a consortium led by the Saudi Arabian government's sovereign wealth fund. The purchase made Newcastle the richest club in the Premier League. Yassir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, was named Non-Executive Chairman of the club.
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