This past Sunday served up one of the depressing football fixtures in recent memory. Chelsea v Newcastle. There has been so much discussion about the state of Chelsea FC and Roman Abramovich's links to Vladimir Putin this past month, but the Saudi state, which effectively owns Newcastle FC, executed 81 people on Saturday.
After the match, Eddie Howe was asked for his feelings about those 81 people who were executed by the people who pay his monthly pay cheque. Howe essentially repeated the mantra he's been sticking to since taking the job at St James's Park.
'I'm going to talk about football.'
Followed up Qs to Eddie Howe about 81 people being executed in 1 day in Saudi, asking the Newcastle manager if he can understand why he’s asked when Mohammed bin Salman is his ultimate boss: “I don’t know what to answer to that. I’m going to talk football” pic.twitter.com/mTZRTPm424
— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) March 13, 2022
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has not dodged similar questions since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They've rattled him, but perhaps because of the urgency of the situation regarding Chelsea's ownership situation, Tuchel has at least grappled with journalist's questions over Abramovich.
"No one knows what's coming" 🙅
Thomas Tuchel exclusive on Chelsea, Roman Abramovich and his future... pic.twitter.com/d5i3FMkOK7— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 13, 2022
The conversation around sportswashing has gone mainstream this week, so much so that the MNF crew dedicated 12 minutes to it last night at the start of their programme when they could have easily been chatting about Everton's woeful form.
Gary Neville said this is only the beginning of awkward questions for Howe, and indeed Guardiola at Man City.
“Thomas Tuchel has done it well and Eddie Howe is going to have to do that."
“If you’re a football manager now, you’re going to have to stand up and answer those questions. One thing is for certain – the journalists have to ask them.
“It’s going to come to Manchester City’s people soon. Pep Guardiola is going to start getting asked these questions because it isn’t going away.
“If in the next year or two, a regulator is brought in and it’s found that you can’t have state money in football in this country, they’re going to have to potentially look back on what’s happened in the last 15-20 years because there’s already state money in this country, and that’s something that’s going to have to be looked at very closely because it’s going to set a massive precedent with what they do with Russia.”
