Newcastle fans greet Joe Harvey with the FA Cup in 1951 - but whose club is it anyway? (credit: Northcliffe Collection)

This episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' talks to Professor Gavin Kitching, author of 'A Fateful Love; Essays on Football in the North-East of England 1880-1930' about what history can tell us about the recent takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi Arabian investment fund.

Is the hyper-commercialisation of football today a consequence of the commercialism which led to the creation of the Football League in the 1880s - or does it represent something new? Why don't fans reject billionaire takeovers of their clubs - and what does it even mean to talk about 'their' clubs? The Newcastle takeover illustrates the issues which face not just soccer, but all sports which base themselves on free-market capitalist commercialism.

For details of a publisher’s discount on Gavin’s book and our discussion about nineteenth century football in the North East of England take a look at Rugby Reloaded episode 169.