Simon Jordan Pipes Up …. Again

Relentless Newcastle United critic and TalkSport host, Simon Jordan has once again criticised the Newcastle regime. As reported in The Chronicle, Jordan has questioned the “tact” of the new custodians potentially releasing a kit with heavy Saudi influence.

The Castore kit has courted controversy from critics and fans alike for its colour scheme which very closesly resembles those of Saudia Arabia’s flag and International kit, produced by Nike.

While it is certainly not the first time a Premier League club has used the colours of their foreign owner’s home country in their alternative kit designs – Chelsea have used Russian colours, for example, it is the first time that the football world has lost its collective minds over the idea.

Newcaslte fans are not naive and are more than aware of the controversial nature of our majority shareholders and their country’s human rights record, and we understand why many people are upset by it. However, the suggestion that the Toon Army are now Saudi cheerleaders is so far wide of the mark it might as well have been a 30 yard Emile Heskey volley.

Due to all the negative reporting regarding the Saudi regime, the flip side is often overlooked: Lines of dialogue have now opened up between average citizens of the two countries which likely wouldn’t have been there before football came along. So you can shout about sportswashing all day long, but there is a potential positive side here. Much like it’s wrong to assume all Newcastle fans are comfortable with the PIF, it’s equally wrong to assume everyone in Saudi is comfortable with their country’s human rights record.

But back to the matter at hand – the kit. It’s not even the first time Newcastle have used the white and green colour scheme, so it’s not even an unprecedented move, that being said, if it is indeed true, it’s quite a shrewd move on behalf of the owners as that will likely be the shirt that sells best in Saudi, thus increasing the club’s revenue.