Yasir Al-Rumayyan is one of the most powerful men in Saudi Arabia. And the PIF boss is now reportedly in the final stages of taking over as the latest chairman of Newcastle United, sources told Sportsmail.
The head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is on the verge of becoming the new public face of the club as part of the £300million takeover of Newcastle from retail tycoon Mike Ashley, which will no doubt come as most welcome news to the Newcastle fans who have long been unenamoured with the Magpies boss and just can’t wait to see the last of him at the club.
All that’s left now is for the Saudi PIF chieftain to pass the detailed checks of his fitness that are prerequisites conducted by the Premier League in order to qualify for running the club as its new designated chairman.
The approval of Al-Rumayyan and the new board is expected to take several weeks. It is learned that the affluent Saudi-backed consortium has sent a 350-page document to the Premier League dovetailing their financial plans in detail for the club.
The document reportedly outlines audacious plans to inject hundreds of millions into Newcastle in a concerted bid to create a club capable of mounting a serious in the Champions League. It also outlines how the proposed investment will be channelled over a series of three-year stages, with the backing of new commercial sponsorships and detailed plans for the day-to-day management of the club.
The new owners are also desirous of seriously revamping Newcastle’s stadium, in tandem with while purchasing star players and also focusing on training younger players as part of an integral corporate sustainability management programme to create sustainably maintain quality in their players at all times.
The club will be a collaborative ownership by the PIF, financier Amanda Staveley and property tycoons David and Simon Reuben. PIF will be taking the lion’s share with 80 per cent, whilst Staveley and the Reuben brothers both take 10 per cent each.
Staveley has been the key person conducting eyeball-to-eyeball meetings with Ashley to iron out the details even before the coronavirus lockdown, with discussions picking up momentum in recent weeks when the Newcastle owner had no alternative but to reduce the asking price from £340m to £300m after the coronavirus pandemic ravaged its way through the continent.
The payment for the club will be made entirely in cash despite earlier reports of a debt-fuelled deal. The Saudi-led consortium had earlier on considered a bid for Chelsea but sources said owner Roman Abramovich was asking for £2.2bn for the club, with an additional £1.3bn to build a new stadium.
The Saudi group opted instead for the prospect of radically turning Newcastle around to create a dynamic brand to challenge Chelsea.
The Saudi owners are aware they must answer some tough questions around the human rights record of their home country.
As chairman of the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Al-Rumayyan is in full control of assets worth about £260 billion and was integral in leading the world’s largest ever share sale last year when Saudi Aramco kicked off an initial public offering on the Saudi Tadawul stock exchange.
Aramco has the monopolistic control on oil in Saudi Arabia, with production of more than 10 million barrels of crude oil a day and accounting for 10 per cent of global demand.
Al-Rumayyan’s highly successful move in courting international investors for the share sale is a key part of the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s plans to shift his country away from dependency on oil and expand into developing other sectors of the economy.
The serious bid to buy Newcastle is apparently one of the initial integral parts of that plan.