“To give the ‘thumbs up’ to this deal at a time when the Premier League is promoting the women’s game and inclusive initiatives such as rainbow armbands, shows the total hypocrisy at play and demonstrates the League’s soulless agenda where profits trump all.” “The Premier League has chosen money over morals and in green lighting this deal, has done business with one of the world’s most bloody and repressive regimes,” it said. They issued a statement explaining their mural, which was equally heated in tone. The Holmesdale Fanatics, the group responsible for the banner, lingered after the final whistle angrily shouting – it appeared – at Newcastle’s substitutes as they warmed down.
All these people – even if it was only a fraction of the crowd – with blood and murder on their mind … who wants to have to bring that to a football match? It seemed there was something else lapping at the edges of this game, the realities that exist outside the bubble of Premier League football.
They read: “Terrorism, Beheadings, Civil Rights Abuses, Murder, Censorship, Persecution,” and next to each line was a large scarlet tick.Ī 1-1 draw with a VAR-overturned winner, a series of thumping challenges and moments of impressive skill, felt both oddly banal and a little by-the-by after that. In the middle was a clipboard listing criteria for the Premier League’s owners test. On the right, a bag of money and a pool of blood lapping at the feet of a cartoon Richard Masters, the Premier League’s chief executive. On the left was an image of a Saudi sheikh, wielding a scimitar, taking aim at the head of a magpie. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images/Reuters Newcastle United directors Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi in the stands at Selhurst Park before Saturday’s match.