Ash is wrong target, Jez

LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn has sensed a ballot box win by making Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley a General Election issue.

Ashley, billionaire owner of Sports Direct and unambitious chief of the Toon, equals bad man in Corbyn world.

The unacceptable, unregulated face of capitalism, exploiting his club for advertising and not passionate enough to bring real success.

The Newcastle owner puts

“business interests ahead of everything else, marginalising supporters,” says Corbyn.

Ashley reckons the left-winger Arsenal fan “showed a surprising lack of knowledge” of football.

Labour’s plan to allow supporters’ trusts to buy shares when a club changes hands would give fans a stake in their institution – and a role in hiring and firing board members. L Labour also want g government to mandate clubs to allocate a slice of revenue from TV d deals into upgrading cl club academies.

Very democratising and populist. And using Ashley (left, above), hated by a large section of Geordies, as the baddie, gains publicity. In reality there are far worse owners Corbyn (left, below) could have picked on. He bought Toon with £133million of his own cash. He loans the club £129m of his own cash.

Having seen clubs like Sunderland crash down divisions mired in debt,

I’ve got no problem with Ashley’s demand that the club “is run in a financially sustainable way”.

Ashley insists he’s “never taken a penny out of the club”.

He needs holding to account, but Corbyn’s biggest target should be the braggarts who buy clubs using massive loans and pay interest using the clubs’ cash. And the owners who rack up unaffordable debts chasing short-term glory – then walk away when it fails and the club is bankrupt.