The giant screens at Wembley captured the full gamut of human emotion: the relief of Ant and Dec, the euphoria of Alan “I’m just a sheet metal worker’s son from Newcastle” Shearer, the tears of fathers and sons who had wondered if this moment would ever come. One whose face they did not convey was Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the man who, as chair of Saudi Arabia’s £720 billion sovereign wealth fund, had made all this possible. But he was there on the pitch at the end, lifting the first English football trophy secured as a direct result of his kingdom’s relentlessly acquisitive vision.
Newcastle would be ultimate feel-good story – if not for Saudi Arabian ownership
