The richest soccer club in the world – Newcastle United – is off to Saudi Arabia for some warm-weather winter training. There are plenty of other places in the sun the Newcastle players could go in January, of course. Spain and Portugal are very nice at this time of year, I have heard, and considerably nearer. But when a struggling team has been given a shot at footballing glory by the petrol millions of new owners in the Middle East then some payback is required. “The Magpies” can expect to rack up the air miles flying to and from Riyadh in the coming years as this exercise in soft power pla…

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