'To boycott or not to boycott' - that is the question

They are the very definition of hardcore support, the fans for whom football will always be more than a game. Yet when Newcastle United take on Tottenham on Sunday, they will not be in their usual seats, not be chanting their usual songs.

Instead, they will congregate at Leazes Park half-an-hour or so before kick off to begin protesting against Mike Ashley’s ownership of the club, and plan to continue their demonstration throughout the duration of the game. None are especially looking forward to the experience, and all three admit it will be strange if the roar of the crowd denotes a Newcastle goal. Tellingly, though, to a man they have pledged to extend their abstinence for as long as Ashley remains lord and master over all he surveys.

Somehow, it has come to this. Something that should bring excitement and enjoyment to those who indulge in it has become the source of so much anger and pain. Newcastle, a football club with a proud, if largely trophy-less, tradition of representing its local community on the national and international stage has morphed into an empty shell bereft of soul or heart.

It is not the lack of success that is turning so many Newcastle fans against their own club. Monday’s 2-0 loss at Liverpool might have been a fifth defeat in a row, but that is hardly something new when it comes to following the Magpies.

It is not just the dearth of ambition that sees the club lurching to yet another bottom-half finish with a temporary head coach and a group of players who do not appear to have any loyalty to the black-and-white shirt beyond the limits of their next pay cheque.

It is all of that and more; the preaching that all is well because profits are up, the distasteful tie up with a payday loans company that brings misery to so many households in the North-East, the willingness to sell the club’s leading players because it is impossible to stop them going on to “bigger and better things”, the refusal to adequately invest in the squad despite boasting one of the biggest average attendances in Europe.

There is so much that is rotten in the state of Newcastle United at the moment that it is difficult to know where the priorities of a supporter-led campaign should lie. Ultimately, though, the title of the website choreographing the protests – AshleyOut.com – holds the key.

If there is to be meaningful change at St James’ Park, it will only come from one man. And so while this weekend’s demonstrations are an understandable attempt to do something, anything, to convey the extent of the supporters’ fury, it is hard to imagine them having much of an effect.

If 20,000 season-ticket holders fail to filter through the turnstiles on Sunday, Ashley will hardly suffer a catastrophic financial hit. If anything, he will probably be patting himself on the back as he halves the number of cleaners needed to tidy up the post-game mess.

That is not to belittle the intentions of those involved in organising this weekend’s events, or to downplay the extent of the frustration that has driven them to it. But it is to highlight the difficulties that are inherent in attempting to remove an owner who boasts 100 per cent ownership of a club that has spent the last three years turning a tidy profit.

To be fair to Ashley, it is worth pointing out at this juncture that he has invested around £250m into buying Newcastle and eradicating some of the club’s pre-existing debt via an interest-free loan. Clearly, he is not going to sell a profitable business for less than that figure, so unless someone is willing to come forward with money on the table, all talk of forcing a change of ownership is futile.

Ashley has committed to remaining in control until at least the end of next season, but the sense remains that he would be willing to sell tomorrow if the price was right. The fact it hasn’t been up to this point suggests there is hardly a queue of prospective buyers snaking down Barrack Road waiting for the boardroom doors to open.

So if Ashley is set to remain in charge for the foreseeable future, the challenge is to persuade him to change his mindset and methodology. Good luck on that one too.

Some of the biggest political names in the country have been urging him to abandon Sports Direct’s controversial use of zero-hours contracts for the best part of two years now, to absolutely no effect. Intransigence is an integral part of his character, and if anything, past evidence suggests that his default response to public pressure is to plough headlong in the opposite direction rather than cede any ground.

The emotion of following Newcastle, not to mention the communal links that run through generations and convey a shared identity that has survived for more than a century, appear to mean nothing to him. This is a labour, not of love, but of cold necessity.

All of which brings us back to Sunday’s planned protests and the dilemma facing thousands of Newcastle supporters who are pondering whether to join the boycott or not.

It is hard to know what it will achieve, but for many, doing nothing is simply no longer an option. Others will claim that a club tearing itself apart is no club at all.

Above all, though, Sunday’s events will demonstrate just how bitter and poisonous the divide between the Newcastle hierarchy and the club’s supporters has become. And the more entrenched the positions on either side, the harder it is to envisage a resolution.

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