Not really true. Considering this I'd all about image and sportswashing, if they had protested about beheading the human rights abuse then they would have walked away.
Exactly.
Some of them seemed to have a lot of belief in their power to influence the outcome when it looked like it wasn’t going their way:
Michael Martin writing in True Faith in April 2020, when it looked set to go through:
We’ve also heard some coverage related to human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. No person of conscience would seriously overlook this. However, we the supporters of Newcastle United, being teed up by journalists to object to the takeover really matter here. All about the empty headlines and clicks to satisfy their bosses.
We don’t have a say. Just like we didn’t have a say when Prince Charles attended the funeral of King Abdullah of the House of Saud with the Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015
Michael Martin writing in True Faith later in 2020, when the PL initially pulled the plug:
Now is the time for leadership and calm heads. It is right the NUST is sharing its correspondence with the PL regards the legal counsel it has received. It is right NUST has written to the PL demanding a meeting to present the questions we all have. It is correct NUST will write to the Sports Minister and I would push further and demand Masters, Bush and the rest of them are brought to parliament to answer questions put by the relevant Select Committee.
This “waah, we don’t get a say” nonsense is just another strand of the many strands of dishonesty we’ve seen from prominent mags during this. The nature of the Saudi’s aims means that this was one of the few protests they could have had that had a very realistic chance of swift success. There was just no desire from any of them to do it because none of them were remotely bothered about the issues with the Saudis, because they’re a group of utter scumbags.