Toon to wear GREEN shirts

AND here come Newcastle United, proudly wearing the green and white shirt of Saudi Arabia...

Newcastle fans used to get in a rage when their club was used as a billboard for Sports Direct.

But now it’s being used as a promotional tool for the Saudi state – to smooth over their poor human rights record and disgust at jounalist Jamaal Khashoggi’s murder.

The latest step is next season’s third kit which will mirror that of the Saudi national team.

There is hypocrisy and pointscoring from all sides.

Mike Ashley, stingy on transfers, equally bad because he branded Sports Direct across the stadium and used zero-hour contracts. The Saudi regime, with tens of millions on players, tolerated by many, despite bombing Yemen, jailing and torturing gays and persecuting women.

If a shirt offends so deeply, where are the MPs demanding real change, which could include banning billions of UK arms exports?

It’s easier to get mad at a football shirt – and hang the difficult issues.

And where is the Premier League on this? Richard Masters said he was convinced the Public Investment

Fund of Saudi, who bought the Toon, is separate from the state.

With Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman chairman of the PIF, there is no separation. So Saudi leverage of Newcastle for their own selfpromotion, will continue.

Note the PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s chummy kickabout on the pitch, and dressing room victory picture, after a recent win, which made the Saudi paper front pages.

Toon fans need to keep engaging with this disturbing trend, or they will become promotional puppets for a questionable regime.

Saudis have bought the club, but Geordies shouldn’t suspend their tradition of challenging owners, just because this lot can buy a striker for £50million.