Why shouldn’t rugby take the Saudi coin?
Newcastle chief says game needs all the help it can get - ‘It doesn’t seem to bother any other sport’
NEWCASTLE’S consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond would ‘definitely’ welcome the Falcons becoming the first Gallagher Premiership club to receive investment from Saudi Arabia.
The Ebglish city’s Premier League football side Newcastle United are already 80 per cent owned by a sovereign wealth fund from the cash-rich Gulf state, known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF). And there is a very real chance that Saudi Arabian money could soon arrive at Kingston Park too, as Diamond looks to improve the Falcons’ position both on and off the field.
Their owner Semore Kurdi and chairman Matt Thompson visited Saudi Arabia earlier this year and
Diamond believes that, given English rugby’s bleak financial situation, a deal should not be questioned despite the country’s poor human rights record.
‘Semore, through his business contacts, went out with Matt and met all the rugby union dignitaries in Saudi Arabia,’ said Diamond, who takes charge of Newcastle for the first time at Exeter tomorrow as the Premiership gets back under way after its hiatus for the Six Nations.
‘I don’t think for a minute they’re expecting us to put a game on before the Tyson Fury fight in May but they want to investigate how we can help them and how they can reciprocate if there is any investment.
‘They are in many sports at the minute and they want rugby to be a focus point in Saudi. There is a natural connection with the soccer team (Newcastle) who are owned by those people.’
Saudi Arabia’s rugby operation — which has close ties to PIF — is understood to be interested in growing the sport in its country with a particular focus on sevens.
Discussions over a mutually beneficial relationship with Newcastle have already begun and could lead to PIF and the Falcons joining forces.
PIF have also had discussions with other Premiership rugby clubs including Leicester Tigers and Gloucester.
Saudi Arabian rugby dignitaries plan to attend a Newcastle home game in the coming weeks. The Falcons are yet to win a game in the Premiership this season and Diamond has been hired to turn things around.
British boxing stars Anthony Joshua and Fury have regularly fought in Saudi Arabia in recent years and the country’s backing for other sports has already seen them invest heavily in Newcastle United and significantly shake up the golf ecosystem through the launch of LIV Golf.
‘English club rugby is in a delicate position. It needs to get out of the jam it has found itself in,’ said Diamond. ‘Rugby union is very good at killing itself, isn’t it? I’m not skilled enough to talk about human rights but it doesn’t seem to bother any other sport, performing in Saudi Arabia.
‘There’s only rugby good enough to shoot itself in the foot with any political statement and turn away investment.’
Diamond will cut his Newcastle squad by up to 20 players and confirmed talented young players Guy Pepper and Louie Johnson will leave the club at the end of the season. Flanker Pepper is heading to Bath and fly-half Johnson will join Saracens — who are expected to lose England No 8 Billy Vunipola and his brother, loosehead prop Mako, at the end of this campaign.
Billy Vunipola is set to follow former England captain Owen Farrell and a host of other stars in moving to France after agreeing a move to Montpellier.
Meanwhile, England scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet will tonight make his long-awaited return from the ankle injury which forced him to miss last year’s World Cup.
Van Poortvliet is on the bench for Leicester as they host Gloucester. It will mark of the return of the Premiership — which yesterday renewed its deal with TNT Sports for two years — after its Six Nations break. Leaders Northampton travel to Bristol. GEORGE NORTH is set for at least six months on the sidelines and has played his last game for Welsh region Ospreys (he is joining Provence in the summer) after he confirmed that he ruptured his achilles in the defeat by Italy last weekend, which also marked his final Test before international retirement.
‘Only rugby would shoot itself in the foot and turn away investment’