Fair Game, a coalition of 31 "value driven" clubs including Bristol Rovers, have branded the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United as "sportswashing pure and simple" and called for an independent regulator in English football given the Premier League's flawed fit and proper person rule.
On Thursday, the protracted and fraught £305m purchase of Newcastle was completed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), ending 14 years of Mike Ashley's uncomfortable ownership leading to celebration across the black and white part of the north east.
But the decision to permit such a deal - albeit with the PIF declared separate from the Saudi state - has raised fresh questions about football's uncomfortable relationship with morality, given the Saudi government's links to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights abuses.
Sportswashing is when an individual or nation state either hosts sporting events or purchases teams as an effective PR tool in an attempt to mask various aspects of their governance and/or activities and has become a systemic practice throughout European football.
Fair Game was established this year to address the financial fallout from the pandemic, the collapse of Bury and Macclesfield, the attempts to create a European Super League and football's increasing distance from its old traditions and identities.
"This is sportswashing pure and simple," a statement read. "Our line is simple. If you have conducted any activity in the last 10 years that would have broken the law in the UK then you are not fit and proper to be an owner of a football club.
"Newcastle United has a long, proud history. Today that history has been hijacked by a country with a serious international image problem. A nation that executes journalists and treats women horrendously.
"If the Premier League believes that the Saudi Government is fit and proper, then frankly they have just made the case for an independent regulator even stronger."
Accrington Stanley, Doncaster Rovers and Luton Town are also among the 31 clubs involved with Fair Game who published their manifesto last month calling for fundamental change in how the game in England and Wales is governed, financed, regulated and sustained.
On joining Fair Game in June, Rovers Commercial Director Tom Gorringe said: "As custodians of the club, our responsibility is not only to do all we can to make the ongoing improvements to the football club, but we also have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the wider game and the football pyramid that makes football in this country so special."
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