Full disclosure, the notes for this column were written in green ink. Glittery green ink, from a pen belonging to one of my children, as I noticed in the brighter light of day, rather than at 6.30am.
Yet I’m not mad, in either sense of the word.
It’s been a bad week to be a Liverpool supporter, first exiting the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain, then losing the League Cup final to Newcastle United.
Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League this week by Paris Saint-Germain
Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain(Martin Rickett/PA)
The first of those was toss-of-a-coin stuff, although Liverpool would have been lucky to go through to the quarter-finals.
PSG’s manager, the admirable Luis Enrique, was gracious in saying that both teams deserved to progress, but the French champions were definitely the better team over the entirety of the tie.
On Sunday I chuntered at the referee a few times. Of course I did. Not doing so would be like asking me not to breathe. My kids also heard some new nouns for the first time as Newcastle players succumbed to a weird falling sickness.
Yet even I accepted that Newcastle absolutely deserved to win, probably by a bigger margin than one goal.
Alexander Isak celebrates scoring Newcastle’s second goal
Alexander Isak celebrates scoring Newcastle’s second goal(Owen Humphreys/PA)
It was as bad a final performance from Liverpool as I’ve seen in my lifetime, right down there with the 1996 and 2012 FA Cup finals.
In contrast, the Magpies carried out their gameplan superbly and ended their 70-year domestic trophy drought in a much more emphatic manner than the 2-1 scoreline suggested. Eddie Howe outsmarted Arne Slot.
The only supporters in red and white who really begrudged Newcastle their victory (apart from some Liverpool InCels on X) were Sunderland fans.
Images of crying Newcastle fans have become memes, so the Toon Army were long overdue silverware to celebrate.
As a proper bitter and twisted football fan, my reaction every time I see Dec (of ‘Ant and’ fame) cheering on the Toon is to recall the childhood picture of him – wearing a Spurs shirt.
Genuine congrats to tens of thousands of lifelong Geordies, though, on Sunday’s triumph.
Strangely, it was an Arsenal fan who told me he’d wanted Liverpool to win, or, more accurately, Newcastle to lose – because they are owned by a petro-state, namely Saudi Arabia.
The same goes for PSG, who should perhaps be known as PSQ, given the extent of their links with Qatar. A section of the visiting support at Anfield last Tuesday were even waving what appeared to be Qatar flags; they were certainly maroon and white.
Anthony Gordon, right, was denied a goal against his former club
Anthony Gordon, right, was denied a goal against his former club(Peter Byrne/PA)
Newcastle, of course, had controversially brought out a change kit in white and green – by pure chance, the colours of the Saudi flag.
There’s a perception that Newcastle have ‘bought’ their recent progress and success, but despite the Saudi billions the limitations of PSR have restricted spending at St James’ Park.
According to the CIES Football Observatory, the costs to assemble the respective squads at the start of this season, in millions of Euros, were as follows: PSG E772m (701 without add-ons); Liverpool E735m (630); Newcastle 683 (608), so much of a muchness, really.
Obviously other aspects of the Newcastle ownership are much more questionable.
Certainly, Saudi Arabia is considered one of the most repressive regimes in the world as regards human rights and freedoms, with Qatar also down there – as is the United Arab Emirates, whence Manchester City’s owners.
Yet there’d be the sounds of a lot of glass smashing if Arsenal and Liverpool fans point fingers of blame too much at Newcastle. Let he is without sin cast the first stone…
That’s a phrase that has literal consequences in Saudia Arabia. So too if supporters just ignore these issues, or ‘bury your head in the sand’…
Make no mistake, Saudi Arabia is the source of much evil in this world – but the UK and the USA are far from innocent.
In a football context, the blood on the hands of a few club owners is no longer just that of a local butcher.
US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump(Niall Carson/PA)
Both Arsenal and Liverpool have American owners. I don’t know their politics, but the USA is a country where slightly more than half the voters in their presidential election knowingly re-appointed a venal, vicious, vindictive, half-witted, cowardly, rapist fraudster – Donald Trump. It would be embarrassing enough if he were simply a balding, make-up-caked, serial financial failure with the vocabulary of a six-year-old, but he is also a very dangerous leader.
His MAGA cult-followers continue to defend and justify all and any of his outrageous statements and actions, no matter the death and misery they bring.
Trump is already cracking down on press freedom and illegally deporting people from the USA. He continues to support Israel’s bombardment of Gaza while trying to force Ukraine to hand over much of its natural resources to the USA and also accept that Vladimir Putin’s Russia can hold on to Ukrainian territory which they have invaded.
It is genuinely frightening the lengths to which Trump and his Project 2025 lunatics might go if they are not stopped.
So America will surely soon be sliding down the Human Rights Watch index.
Even without those US connections, Arsenal and Liverpool cannot claim to only use money that doesn’t stink.
Arsenal play their home matches at the Emirates Stadium in Highbury, north London
Arsenal play their home matches at the Emirates Stadium in Highbury, north London(Zac Goodwin/PA)
Arsenal’s stadium and front-of-shirt sponsors are Emirates airline, have been since 2006, and will be until at least 2008. Arsenal also accepts sleeve sponsorship from Rwanda, a country which can’t really afford that but whose leader since 2000 – Paul Kagame, a man who gets suspiciously high electoral support – happens to be a Gunner.
Liverpool’s front-of-shirt sponsors since 2010, and until at least 2027, are Standard Chartered. It continues to be alleged that this bank facilitated financial transactions for Iran-linked entities and terrorist organisations between 2008 and 2013, perhaps totalling up to $100billion (£78bn).
The sports-washing project costing billions which the Saudis are engaged in may help them, but even without that many states would still turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings because of their vast oil reserves and wealth.
How many people think of Saudi Arabia when they see or hear mention of Newcastle United? How many people think well of Saudi Arabia even if that is the case?
The same questions apply to PSG and Qatar (Barcelona too), Manchester City and Arsenal and the UAE, Liverpool and Iran.
Football supporting is not black and white. There are shades of grey – and sometimes of the sort that leave you feeling disgusted with yourself as well as ecstatic, perhaps even on the same occasion.