A price worth paying?
I wonder what Sunderland fans are making of the Saudi takeover of the club up the road?
One diehard told me that he couldn't continue supporting Sunderland if this happened here, but I'm not sure that I believe him and I'm sure that many take the opposite view.
It's worth pointing out, though, that back in August 2020 Amnesty International called on the
Premier League to update its Owners and Directors test – “Instead of allowing those implicated in serious human rights violations to walk into English football simply because they have deep pockets, we've urged the Premier League to change their owners’ and directors’ test to address human rights issues,” Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International chief executive, said at the time.
"The phrase 'human rights’ doesn't even appear in the owners’ and directors’ test despite English football supposedly adhering to
FIFA standards. We've sent the Premier League a suggested new human rights-compliant test and we reiterate our call on them to overhaul their standards on this.”
We now hear that the Premier League has agreed to a meeting with Amnesty
Turkish woman Hatice Cengiz has strong views on this issue. Her name may not be familiar but her fiance, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was allegedly murdered by security personnel in the
Saudi embassy in Istanbul in 2018. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, chair of the consortium which will have a majority share in the club, was accused of ordering the gruesome murder.
Maybe League One football is a price worth paying after all, although I doubt many of the loyal fans who were at Rotherham recently were thinking that.
“It’s highly infectious and usually circulates at this time of
year.”