Premier League club Newcastle United have been sold to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund after a protracted takeover and legal fight involving concerns about piracy and rights abuses in the kingdom.
The Stg 300 million ($A559 million) takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund initially collapsed last year over concerns about how much control the kingdom’s leadership would have in the running of Newcastle.
PIF has had to offer assurances to the Premier League that its chairman, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and in turn the state will not have any control of the running of the club.
The decision was celebrated wildly by former players and fans of the club, who have put aside any concerns they might have around its human rights record.
The takeover ends the 14-year ownership by British retail tycoon Mike Ashley, who has been widely viewed as a figure of scorn in the one-club city, whose St James’ Park stadium is affectionately dubbed “the cathedral on the hill.”
Many columnists were not as accommodating as fans celebrating the new spending power.
“The most obvious point is that [former owner] Mike Ashley’s departure is a hugely welcome turn,” wrote Barney Ronay in the Guardian.
“Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle brought stasis, inflammatory managerial appointments, two relegations and worst of all a kind of viciousness, a showboating arrogance in his dealings with the club’s support. The grossest offence of the Ashley era was its joylessness, the capacity to make people who love football and love their club feel estranged, disdained and commodified. He will not be missed.
“And yet, while we’re telling it like it is, there is also something wretched, hypocritical and deeply depressing in English football’s willingness to welcome into its elite members’ club the blood-soaked, repressive, deeply discriminatory Saudi state.
“In this light the comparison with Ashley, the assumption that Newcastle has finally found its prince, seems to involve a degree of cognitive dissonance. Infuriating tracksuit vendor v blood-stained dictatorship. Zero-hours sport-shop contracts v beheading 37 people in a single day. Hiring Dennis Wise v bombing Yemen. Is it really obvious that one of these – the beheading one – is so much more desirable than the other?
“There will of course be a hostile response to such observations, if only because football, and indeed all human experience, has become so aggressively tribal. There is a genuine conviction out there that uneasiness over a Saudi presence in English football is based in hostility towards Newcastle United. In reality the opposite is true: it is an expression of respect for the club as something of value.
“Welcome to English football 2021, a place where nobody is really clean.”
Oliver Brown, writing in the UK Telegraph, was similarly scathing.
“Anybody horrified by the Saudis’ capture of Newcastle United risks running headlong into hostility from the club’s long-suffering fans,” Brown wrote.
“All demand to know why the same moral indignation is not reserved for Manchester City acting as a shop front for the United Arab Emirates, or for Paris Saint-Germain’s role as a convenient conduit for Qatari soft power.
“The key difference, surely, is that while both those regimes have fallen short on multiple Amnesty International metrics, neither sanctioned the murder and dismemberment of a journalist just three years ago this week.
“The case of Jamal Khashoggi – the Washington Post columnist killed, according to US intelligence agencies, on the direct orders of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman – is crucial to understanding why Newcastle’s takeover represents such a grotesque moment for football.”
PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said: “We are extremely proud to become the new owners of Newcastle United, one of the most famous clubs in English football,”
The PIF will be the majority partner alongside wealthy British-based Reuben brothers and financier Amanda Staveley.
The Premier League said “the club has been sold to the consortium with immediate effect” following the completion of its owners’ and directors’ test.
“The Premier League has now received legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club,” it added.
Ashley’s ownership has been marked by chronic underinvestment in the playing squad, his use of Newcastle as a vehicle to promote his business interests, and of a general lack of ambition despite the club attracting regular home crowds of more than 50,000.
Newcastle haven’t won a major trophy since the 1955 FA Cup and their last league title was in 1927 but the north-east English club have long been seen as a slumbering giant.
The club will now be seeking a transformation in the same manner enjoyed by Manchester City in 2008 after their takeover by another Middle Eastern entity – Abu Dhabi.
Staveley, who brokered the City takeover, is also fronting the Saudi takeover of Newcastle.
It is four years since Staveley attempted to buy Newcastle, but the most recent bid collapsed last year amid legal battles.
A key impediment to the takeover was the piracy in Saudi Arabia of sports broadcasts by Qatari-owned beIN – including of Premier League games.
Saudi Arabia declared beIN illegal in 2017 as the nation launched a wider economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar alongside the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain over accusations Doha supports extremism. The tiny, super-rich nation of Qatar denied the charge.
It is understood the Saudi government has now informed beIN – which had initially asked the Premier League to block the Newcastle sale – that its channels will be allowed to broadcast in the country for the first time since the start of the Gulf diplomatic dispute.
Amnesty International wrote to league chief executive Richard Masters to say the takeover could be exploited by Saudi Arabia to cover up “deeply immoral” breaches of international law, citing human rights violations and the role of the crown prince.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Very true statements. What are your thoughts on Murdoch & foxsports supporting AFL. have to seen the hate & division that has been created by especially by Fox news in the US. We see what we want to see. Kochie taking Port Adelaide & creating professional sport in China, ummm.
Punter
Roar Rookie
The irony or protest or Boycott. In 1980 many western countries especially the US boycotted the Moscow Olympics due to Russian invasion of Afghanistan, in 2021 the US moved their troops out of Afghanistan.
Coastyboi
Guest
Cheers for your clique press release, champ. Stick to your AFLM articles, & good luck with pumping millions of dollars into the Chinese economy, by trying to push a backward sport onto the communist nation. Pot, kettle, black.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Punter - what we really have is worldwide hypocrisy and we manage it by compartmentalising it or looking at the abuse and creating a league table or varying degrees if you,prefer. Everywhere you turn you see abuse of power, shady dealings and far worse but some are more acceptable, more than likely because we are making good money and don’t want to rock the boat. Lots of ares of sport are dirty or sullied and you can only protest so much. The only course of action really left is to walk away and have nothing to do with it.
BigAl
Roar Rookie
What about AGO74's comment above ? Very interesting about ...fans and Super League ...
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Yasir!
Rossi
Roar Rookie
Good stuff, happy for Newcastle
JGK
Roar Guru
At least you know they are going to get favourable Press coverage.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Investment in the EPL is a punishment not a reward , with no limit on wages and promotion and relegation its a financial formula to lose money. Competition for players at the moment is extreme an old Messi well past his best earning more than a whole NBA team before tax. European tax rates can be changed, an investment in Spain would be now a disaster because of Spain raising its tax rates. If the same thing happens in England with a new government there goes the investment. USA main sports are good investments, not only do you have the salary caps, no promotion and relegation, and even if you appoint the dumbest team management not only dont you get relegated out of the league you get huge rewards through high draft picks. No competition either on tax rates if the US raises taxes it doesn't mean the players will leave for another country. Sportwashing is the biggest myth, sport is not the way to improve ones reputation in the general public. There is more bitchiness if one gets involved in the EPL, directed against the owners so its worse than not getting involved. Only exception to this rule is maybe if you host an AFL match, the Australian media love affair with China when they had the AFL match in total contrast to China coverage these days , but that only gets you good media coverage in Australia. The English dont care if you buy an EPL team, they just bleed you for money. If you want to suck up to the English pretend you like their food.
Punter
Roar Rookie
This is correct, but this is not confined to the EPL, governments has the door wide open, how much of Australia has the government sold to the Chinese, with their dictatorship & human rights issues. How many African doors are also open the doors to the Chinese & previously to Western countries which just came & raped. Australia's human rights are not exactly strong with our handling of the refugees & the indigenous natives of this land. While I don't disagree with you, our moral customs are very wrong, the Chinese are saying their foreign policies are no different to the foreign policies of the Europeans & the Americans when they were the super powers. What US, UK & Australia did to Iraq was hideous. But we never read about that way.
At work
Roar Rookie
This purchase really is on the nose and I feel pretty uncomfortable about the Saudi's embarking on more sportswashing. The only upside and silver lining is that the Newcastle fans will finally start to see some good results, and it will add another serious competitor to the EPL landscape.
AGO74
Guest
For all the talk earlier this year of how the fans shot down super league and how noble their game is and you can’t take it away from fans etc - and then you see this joyous reaction from Newcastle fans. The journos in this story are focussed on Khasoggi which is fair enough but I’m more focused on the abhorrent treatment of women in that nation as well as other minorities. But all of that doesn’t matter when you have a big fat wad of cash. The EPL clearly doesn’t have a moral compass as shown by allowing other regimes to invest but this has clearly jumped the shark. Another reason to stick with our (albeit imperfect) A-league.
XI
Roar Guru
Bit of a Spiderman meme with the Saudis accusing Qatar of supporting extremism. This is why I'm glad that private ownership is still the minority option here. People who can afford to buy a sports club aren't often nice.
sheek
Roar Guru
When greed knocks down the front door, integrity jumps out the window. The EPL lost its soul for money long ago.
TeamAustralia
Roar Rookie
Absolutely disgusting decision by the EPL (and the UK Govt, as you can bet that the EPL got their nod and wink). Football journalists better be careful with their match reviews or they might find themslevs mince meat. But hey, we didn't complain too much when the UK and Aussie governments started selling arms (and continue to do so) to Saudi Arabia which are being used to kill innocent domestic and Yemeni citizens.
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
Oh yuck I do not approve of this decision. While Mohammad Bin Salman is the crown prince they should not be allowed purchase a football team while their backwards society stagnates under the tyrannical boot of a dictatorship