Newcastle's triumph: part feelgood story, part dictator state PR win

Fans are entitled to feel euphoric but the Carabao Cup success is also a first significant victory for the club's Saudi Arabian regime and its sportswashing project

- Barney Ronay

Well, that's the nice bit done. Warm feelings, heritage bonds, a cocoon of distracting noise. Wembley is such a different place on these domestic cup days, certainly compared with the Cliff Richard concert vibe of a midweek international.

And that feeling was there right from the start of the Carabao Cup final on Sunday as Newcastle were awarded their first corner, drawing the most extraordinary outburst of noise, static, shared energy from one end to the other, filling all that empty Wembley air.

There is no other human activity where this happens in the same way, an unchoreographed mass human theatre. But this is also power, and power is more than ever open to being used. So the nice bit is done. And maybe it is time now to look at this with a little more clarity.

Two things can be true simultaneously. Newcastle United winning a first major domestic trophy in 70 years is a euphoric feelgood story for the fans. This is true. That same trophy is also a first significant victory for the Saudi Arabian regime harnessing all this untamed human feeling to wash the blood and cruelty from its hands. This is also true.

Does it still feel OK? Is there an aftertaste? Perhaps something slightly acid? This would be only human. That outpouring around Wembley is also, like it or not, a piece of targeted public theatre, the good intertwined with the bad, that thing you love being piggybacked by dictator state ambition, a kind of Burn Saw/BoneSaw dynamic.

It is important to recognise none of this is the fault of Newcastle's supporters. The entire process is an act of macro-violence towards sport, clubs, leagues and fans, one in which the football authorities and UK government are complicit.