Premier League managers such as Newcastle’s Eddie Howe cannot ignore questions on owners, say Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville | Football News
Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville believe Premier League managers must be prepared to answer difficult questions relating to club owners and the origins of their money.
Over the last week, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has handled questions on Roman Abramovich and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in “statesman-like” fashion, according to Neville.
But Eddie Howe, who was appointed as Newcastle manager by the club’s Saudi Public Investment Fund owners in November, refused to comment when asked about Saudi Arabia executing 81 people in one day following his side’s 1-0 loss to Chelsea on Sunday.
Asked by Monday Night Football presenter David Jones whether it is fair for managers like Howe to face questions on such matters, Carragher said: “Yes, I think it is, with the situation and how everybody sees it and how against it a lot of people are – and understandably so.
“Thomas Tuchel has handled the whole situation with what is going on with Roman Abramovich and what’s happening in Ukraine really well.
“The question to Eddie Howe on Sunday, the tone of it was, ‘Eddie, what are you doing working for the Saudis, are you not aware of what they do?’
“That was the insinuation, and it is a very difficult position for him to be in.”
Carragher then asked Neville, himself a former manager, how he would have responded to the same line of questioning.
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“Eddie Howe is in an extremely difficult position,” said Neville. “Tuchel has been statesman-like in the past couple of weeks, standing up and getting the balance right between understanding he works for the football club, but also that it’s not right. He’s gone up in everyone’s estimations.
“I think Jurgen Klopp does that really well at Liverpool as well. When social or political issues come into their world, they handle them with great honour.
“Eddie Howe is going to have to do that because these questions are not going away.
“In any other walk of life, we would be very nervous about working for an organisation that has money associated with it that wasn’t particularly clean.
“Footballers over the past 20 years have been removed from that, thinking it wasn’t in the sphere of sport, rising above it, and not accepting the connection between sport, politics, and sportswashing.
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Gary Neville says the situation at Chelsea is a ‘wake-up call’ for football, and expects an independent regulator to come in to oversee the sale of clubs in the future
“But sport is now being scrutinised like you wouldn’t believe. It needs independent regulation and transparency.
“This is too much for the executive of the Premier League at this moment in time. These are massive, global issues that are hitting home on our doorstep.
“Eddie Howe is not prepared to deal with them. He’s prepared for the job, but he didn’t join Newcastle to answer massive political questions related to a war or mass executions in Saudi Arabia.
“He’s a football person, but if you’re a football manager now, you’ve got to answer those questions because one thing that is certain is that the journalists have to ask those questions.
“I have to say, Abu Dhabi, these questions are going to come to Manchester City’s people soon, Pep Guardiola is going to start getting asked these questions.
“It’s not going away. If in a year or two, a regulator is brought in and it’s decided that you cannot have state money in football in this country, they are going to have to potentially look back at what’s happened over the last 15 years in this country because state money is already here.
“That will have to be looked at very closely because it’s going to set a massive precedent with what they do with Russia.”
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Neville continued: “The journalists have to ask the questions. We have to ask the questions.
“There was a time when we tried to stay away from these massive societal issues. We can’t anymore.
“We can’t sit here with a global game, a global brand, with sanctions being put on our big football clubs by our government, and governments abroad, and not comment on it. We have to be accountable.
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“If you look at the owners of the top-six clubs in the country, it’s probably only Liverpool who are popular with the fanbase and haven’t got any moral issues.
“The other five clubs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham aren’t happy with their owners, and Manchester City and Chelsea have got massive moral issues with their ownership.”
Neville added that he would be “amazed” if a mooted £2.7bn takeover offer for Chelsea from the Saudi Media Group was allowed to go through.
“There has been a headline today that there has been a £2.7bn bid for Chelsea from the Saudi Media Company. I would be amazed if that Saudi Media Company were allowed to buy Chelsea on the back of what has happened.
“I do think there is something coming on top very quickly when it comes to the fit and proper person test, which is not resilient, independent, or transparent.
“We don’t know what criteria or hurdles the Saudis have had to through to get into this country.
“I was supportive of them coming in, even though I would reassess that after what’s happened in the last 10 days.”
