‘No tact’ – pundit blasts shirt leak

FORMER Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has blasted Newcastle United’s ownership for a lack of ‘tact’ following last week’s leaked away kit for the 2022/23 Premier League campaign.

All three of Newcastle’s potential kits for next season were leaked on Twitter last week, although there has been no official confirmation from the club, with the away shirt looking eerily similar to the national kit of Saudi Arabia.

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, alongside Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Jamie Reuben purchased Newcastle from Mike Ashley in October 2021.

There can be little to separate the two kits, with the prospective away shirt, a white and green ensemble, bringing up uncomfortable questions about the Saudi regime and the Kingdom’s human rights record.

And speaking on TALKSPORT, former Palace owner, turned pundit, Jordan certainly made his thoughts on the leaked Newcastle away kit clear as he blasted the St James’ Park ownership.

“There’s no tact behind this,” said Jordan on talksport’s White and Jordan.

“There’s no notion that, this isn’t what it is. This is a mock-up of the Saudi Arabia kit – well, it’s bloody close isn’t it?

“I guarantee that that kit would never, ever have been conceived if the ownership model wasn’t the ownership model that it is.

“The fact that the ownership model is Saudi Arabian, the fact that it’s owned by a nation state, the fact that the kit is as close as you can get to the Saudi Arabian national team are all just coincidences, are they?

“If this is right and it’s not some made up, divisive individual creating a look that’s never going to manifest itself, then not only are they owning a football club that they shouldn’t have owned in the first place in my view, they’re now saying ‘we’re going to do what everyone was frightened of’.

“We’re going to leverage it, we’re going to make it about perpetuating our values and we’re playing in a Saudi Arabian kit while Newcastle play away for 19 games a season, of which the matches are being broadcast around the world which is precisely what they wanted and bought the football club for.”