Many of my fan(s) will know, or remember, that I was once a fan of Newcastle United F.C., hereinafter referred to as NUFC to make it easier to type.

Many of those fan(s) will also have found it difficult to understand why it was that I terminated my relationship with the club, and made a big hoo-ha about it at the time.

It has come as no surprise to me at all that, as of today, current manager Rafael Benitez is no longer Manager of NUFC.  Having been manager of that club for some three and a half years, it turns out that even someone who holds a Champions’ League winners’ medal could not rescue a squad that is stuck in football’s U-bend, and waiting for someone with that metaphorical bog brush to come along, unclog the blockage and flush the club down towards the sport’s considerably-sized sewer.  If Benitez couldn’t do it, it is difficult to come up in one’s head with a manager that can.

Let me assure you, dear reader(s), that it was not easy to sever my relationship with my club, which had been very dear to my heart for the previous three decades.  And, quite naturally, it is not a decision that makes any difference to the club, since I am not in any position there, do not own a season ticket, and furthermore, I am still writing and thinking about it (the club).

In July 2013, it was reported in The Guardian newspaper in the UK that 90% of the workforce of the sports retail firm Sports Direct were on what is called ‘zero-hour’ contracts.  Sports Direct is a company founded and owned by British businessman Mike Ashley, who also happens to own NUFC.

In the same Guardian article, it was reported that, of Sports Direct’s 20,000 part-time staff, a full 100% of them were on these zero-hour contracts; these contracts give the employee certain obligations to the company, but very few in return.  For example, a zero-hour contract does not guarantee you any number of hours a week, no statutory sick or holiday pay, or indeed any benefits that could be awarded to full-time staff.  You can be sacked with less than one day’s notice.

At the same time, reported The Guardian, the company’s 2,000 or so full-time staff were about to share in a bonus totalling £100,000, which averages out at £50 per employee.

The more I thought about it, the more I began to seethe and rant about the unfairness of such contracts which favoured the big company far more than it did the little employee.  And, despite pressure from sources as high as the UK Parliament, Ashley and his company did not budge.  Indeed, further reporting in 2016 noted that employees on zero-hour contracts at the company were earning, on average, £1,000 less than their full-time counterparts doing exactly the same job.

This was enough for me.  On August 7, 2013, I took to Facebook, my usual ranting emporium, and wrote:

Today’s rant concerns a very difficult personal decision for me. No-one else will care about it, certainly not the subject of the rant, but there we are. It concerns the situation at SPORTS DIRECT, the retail company that has 23,000 staff, 90% of whom are ‘part-time’ and have just been handed what are known as ‘zero hour’ contracts – i.e., those that do not guarantee any form of employment from one day to the next, and also remove the right to sick pay, holiday pay, and so forth. Other companies anxious to squeeze every last penny of profit out of its staff and customers include Burger King, McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza. (The Guardian) Perhaps you can see a pattern here regarding the kinds of companies that thrive on zero-hour contracts. The online petition site 38 DEGREES is appealing for help regarding a former member of Sport’s Direct’s staff who is taking them to court over these contracts. You can read more here: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/contribute/Stand-with-Zahera#petition Please donate if you can. It is important that the ‘little guy’ sends a message to these big corporations that they can’t just expect to win because they have loads of money and the claimant doesn’t. Now, why is this so difficult for me? Because Sports Direct is owned by MIKE ASHLEY, who is, as many of you footie fans will be aware, also owner of NEWCASTLE UNITED, a team I have followed since the late 80s. Ashley has made a number of daft decisions as club owner, most of which can be put down to ‘hey, that’s football,’ but the sponsorship deal with WONGA.COM is a step too far. This company, whose investors have included the Wellcome Trust (though they recently put their stake up for sale), and the Church of England for goodness’ sake, are the subject of much controversy due to their colossal interest rates, database collection and loan provision methods. I can no longer follow a club which has Mike Ashley as its owner. This man, currently worth over £1.5 billion, is prepared to squeeze the life out of even the lowliest part-time employee by refusing to guarantee them work. This man has entered into a sponsorship deal with a company that happily admits to charging a whopping 5853% Representative APR. This man has treated successive managers appallingly, and his treatment of Alan Pardew is unbelievable. As I said at the beginning, nobody will care, certainly not anyone associated with the club. But that’s not the point. Today I shall be writing to the club, and to the online fan site nufc.com, simply to highlight the issue in the only way that I can. xx

As promised, I wrote to the club via email and, as predicted, never heard a word back from them.

Just as he does in retail, it appears that Mr Ashley’s sole purpose as owner of NUFC is to run it into the ground.  I am not a businessman, and so I fail to see the logic of this.  Most people in business buy a struggling company in order to turn it around, raise its price and sell it again at a massive profit.  That bit I get.  But, time and again, despite billionaires achieving great things at clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City, Ashley has said repeatedly that there is no money to buy top-quality players, he takes the purchasing of players decisions out of the manager’s hands, and generally casts an air of depression across a club which has always prided itself on the passion the fans have for the team on the pitch, as well as the club off it.

Mr Ashley has owned the club for about ten years, and, according to his own claims, has had it on sale for around half of that time, claiming also that no serious buyer has ever approached him or the club.  Initially, Mr Ashley was a popular feature at the club; he became famous for sitting in the stands, NUFC scarf around his neck, with and among the fans, rather than in the director’s box with all the other top brass.

His first move as club owner was to bring NUFC legend Kevin Keegan back to the club for his second spell as manager.  From the fans’ perspective, Mr Ashley could not have done anything better.  However, fans were soon to discover that he could not have done anything worse.

Keegan’s second spell at NUFC lasted all of eight months.  The manager quickly realised he could not work with Mr Ashley, managing director Derek Llambas and, most importantly of all, the club’s Executive Director of Football, a bizarre choice in former Chelsea hard man Dennis Wise, who was appointed at more or less the same time as Keegan, and who continually interfered in team matters that should have been left to Keegan, such as team selection, tactics and the purchase of players.  Wise’s role should have been to advise the board on footballing matters, not to make decisions in place of Keegan and on the board’s behalf.  Keegan immediately began publicly addressing his displeasure at the whole concept of Director of Football; he felt that the club didn’t need one.  And indeed they didn’t.  Keegan could have advised the board on footballing matters himself, made all the transfer decisions, etc., just as he had done during his first tenure at the club, between 1992 and 1997.

Keegan resigned for the second time on September 4, 2008.  Fans turned on Mike Ashley instantly.  Ten days later, he put the club up for sale, and his relationship with the fans has not been right since.  Ashley told fans: “I have listened to you. You want me out. That is what I am now trying to do.” 

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7615618.stm]

Since Kevin Keegan walked in September 2008, there have been nine managers at NUFC, all of them bringing hope, but none of them delivering promise.  The truth is that they have all been hamstrung by an owner whose business practices are shady, and who believes in prudent to punish a football club he regrets buying and now cannot sell.

Those are the reasons why, in 2013, I withdrew my support for a club that I previously held, and still do if I’m honest, a great deal of affection for.  When I was a child, I supported Liverpool, though I never went to see them play, ironically, until 1987, by which time I had already moved to the North-East and was an NUFC fan.  It was Keegan, ironically, who drew me to Liverpool as a child; I saw Keegan’s last match as a player on television, which was for NUFC (I was already living in Whitley Bay by then), after which he made an emotional speech to the fans in the ground, and I saw for myself the love that this man who I had hero-worshipped for 18 years by that time, had for NUFC, and they had for him in return.  Keegan had drawn me to NUFC as well.

I saw first-hand, on many occasions, the huge affection felt by the city of Newcastle and its surrounding environs towards its football club… Saturday afternoons, the city centre would be awash with black & white; the club’s colours adorning flags, banners, shirts and shop windows as many thousands made their way to the ground to cheer the club on, win, lose or draw.

And I wish I could do that again; but my principles as a human being must come first.  Corporate dominance over its low-paid and badly mistreated work force must be punished wherever possible, and in whatever large or small way possible.

The day Mike Ashley manages to sell the club and walks away from it, I will be back supporting them like a shot.  But I cannot now.  Many people protest corporate mistreatment in all walks of life.  Many give up things they hold dear to protest, why shouldn’t I?  I am not a fairweather supporter as I have been called in the past.  My heart is with Newcastle, but I am afraid, that, for the time being at least, my soul cannot join it. x