In a matter of hours Newcastle United could well be under a new ownership.
According to The Telegraph, a powerful consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is hoping to complete their takeover of Newcastle United within the immediate future, thereby ending owner Mike Ashley’s 14-year reign this week after a recent breakthrough in negotiations.
A spanner had been thrown into the negotiations when Saudi Arabia’s prolonged legal dispute with Qatari-owner broadcaster BeIN Sports had thrown the take-over into disarray and uncertainty but the good news is that the two states have apparently sorted out their year-long legal dispute after BeIN Sports’ regional stream had been hacked prior to that.
Allegedly, Saudi-owned duplicate company, beOUTQ, had distributed the stream across the region, costing BeIN Sports a fortune and even after the duplicate was shut down in 2019, Saudi Arabia continued to block BeIN Sports, the Premier League TV rights owner in the Middle East, which exacerbated tensions with Qatar.
However, The Telegraph reports that the legal dispute between the two states has been amicably settled, after which the Saudis quickly took control of negotiations and approached the Premier League to reformulate the plan to resuscitate the completion of the deal.
The agreement the Qataris and the Saudis means there will no longer need to be an arbitration to settle whether PIF is an entity separate from Saudi Arabia, which would then result in the Premier League being able to announce they have given the take-over the green light imminently, allowing and facilitating its completion.
The Saudis’ Newcastle take-over bid initially didn’t fully comply with the Premier League’s directors and owners’ test requirements due to Qatari’s BeIN Sports accusing the Saudi state of blocking their signals.
But now that both Saudi Arabia and Qatar representatives are said to be delighted that the dispute will soon be resolved over BeIN Sports broadcasting, one BeIN Sports source told The Telegraph that the agreement iss “absolutely enormous” after the initial prevailing fears that rights values would drop drastically if the dispute had continued.
One figure central to derailing the Saudis’ previous takeover bid has said:
“There is now nothing legally stopping the takeover. The legal issue will be resolved, so it simply becomes a moral question for the Premier League.”
Governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, will become the club’s chairman with royal backing and endorsement, with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, being a key figure in the bid.
The Saudi consortium will own 80 per cent of Newcastle United Football Club in total, while British businesswoman Amanda Staveley and the Reuben brothers will each own 10 per cent equity stakes.
The growing feeling is that developments will become apparent in the coming days, if not hours.