The clock marked 32 minutes of the second half and Manchester City was winning 3-0 against Newcastle United in the Premier League on the 19th. The score was not faithful to the ease that Pep Guardiola’s men found on the field.
Oblivious to all this, the home crowd at St. James Park Stadium got up and began to shout:
“Fuck Man City, we’re richer than you.”
A day earlier, Sunderland had played away from home against Ipswich for League One, the English third division.
“What’s it like to be Geordies? What’s it like to be little? What’s it like to not earn anything?” sang visitors in a parody of the song “This Is how to feel” by Inspiral Carpets.
Geordies is how the inhabitants of Tyneside, where Newcastle is located, are known.
Located in the north of England, close to the border with Scotland, the teams star in one of the biggest rivalries in world football. A centuries-old animosity between the two cities that has roots in the 17th century, when they were on opposite sides of the English Civil War. The feeling found in football the perfect escape valve.
“It’s a gigantic rivalry. You have to live it to understand. I’ve participated in several classics and I’ve never seen anything like it, not even after I stopped playing. When we beat Sunderland, we became the owners of the city,” says the midfielder Lee Clark. He played for Geordies for ten years and is now a coach.
During the London Olympics in 2012, Brazil faced New Zealand at St. James Park. After the match, a Brazilian journalist was harassed by a Newcastle fan. Seeing the reporter in a red and white shirt, the colors of Sunderland, she thought he came from the neighboring town.
“There was a certain balance. But now the trend is for it to end. I mean, if Sunderland returns to the Premier League,” adds Clark.
The root of the ex-player’s statement is the same as the scream of the Newcastle fans against City. In October, the club was purchased by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia for 300 million pounds (R$ 2.26 billion at current prices). The team now belongs, in practice, to the country’s royal family, with assets valued at US$500 billion (R$2.8 trillion).
It would even be possible, until then, to envision a meeting between the rivals in 2022. Newcastle are the penultimate placed in the Premier League and are at risk of relegation. Sunderland are second in the 3rd division and fight to rise.
The general expectation is that the situation will improve for Newcastle in January, in the first transfer window for the club after winning the lottery and becoming the richest on the planet. Reinforcements are expected to be hired to take the team out of the relegation zone.
“There have been questions about where the money to buy Newcastle comes from. But I don’t think fans are too worried about that,” says striker Ally McCoist, who played at Sunderland in the 1980s.
The sale of the team became controversial because Saudi Arabia is an absolutist monarchy. There is no democracy in the nation and bodies such as Amnesty International denounce a lack of respect for women’s rights, the LGBTQIA+ community and disrespect for human rights.
Manchester City is owned by a subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, a country that also receives similar criticisms.
“If you look at history, there’s always been a balance in the matches. That’s what makes Sunderland and Newcastle one of the greatest classics in Europe. But if they’re similar in history and tradition, now they seem to be going in opposite directions,” McCoist says.
The first clash between the rivals took place in 1898. There are 155 matches in total, with 53 wins each and 49 draws.
The two share sufferings on the field. Sunderland have six first division titles (most recently in 1936). Newcastle have won four times but haven’t lifted the trophy since 1927. Their last expression cup is the 1969 Uefa Cup.
For Sunderland, it’s the 1973 FA Cup.
Until the negotiation with the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia, rivals also shared problems with leaders. Newcastle fans hated manager Mike Ashley, the club’s owner. Sunderland went into a financial crisis that saw them have different owners, leave the Premier League and fall to the third division.
Newcastle are considered a sleeping giant of British football. Despite the few victories, it takes around 50,000 fans to its stadium each round. Their enemy has become best known, in recent years, for the Netflix series, Sunderland ‘Till I Die (Sunderland until I die, in English), which shows behind the scenes of the team and its disappointments, which are not few.
At the end of the second season, after the defeat in the playoff final that prevented the team from entering the second division, a Sunderland fan speaks, in tears, when she sees Charlton’s party after scoring the winning goal at 49 of the 2nd half :
“Why are we never the ones who celebrate?”
It was a phrase that united, in pain, historical rivals. But now Newcastle can change that.
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