A lot of Newcastle United fans have replied to a tweet from Luke Edwards in which he has highlighted rule F.1.6 of the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test.
The rule states that the league should take into consideration if the person involved has taken part in conduct outside of the United Kingdom that would constitute an offence in the UK, whether there has been a conviction or not.
Edwards believes that it is this rule that the Premier League’s lawyers have been stressing over and could explain why the process is taking a long time.
He also stated that he was unsure if this would block the proposed takeover, but either way, his tweet has got these Toon fans talking.
Does this update from Edwards concern you?
Yes, it doesn't look good
No, they would have been prepared for this
I presume this is the relevant section of the test that is taxing the Premier League’s lawyers over #nufctakeover I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t say if this means it will be blocked or not. Hopefully not. But you can see why it’s complicated pic.twitter.com/aAoBcs1wLM
— Luke Edwards (@LukeEdwardsTele) May 6, 2020
Surely the buyers of known that this would pop up in the directors test. they wouldn’t put a huge deposit down if they thought something like this would stop them from buying #nufc. I’d say you no nothing as to what’s happening and this is all guess work.its happening #takeover
— STEPHEN BURNIP (@Ste_NUFC_Burnip) May 6, 2020
And lets be completely honest. By that criteria, it should absolutely be blocked
— Lee (@75nufc) May 6, 2020
The conduct of the piracy cannot be directly linked to MBS or PIF, only the policing of it, so it’ll just be lots of fine detail legal confirmation
— Pete (@GallowgatePete) May 6, 2020
All far to complex for me. But Iv got serious doubts this is going to go through ?
— phil rattcliff (@whisperingeye5) May 6, 2020
Bin Salman is not buying the club or sitting on the board so who does that relate too?
— Andy Slaughter (@AndySlaughter) May 6, 2020
My opinion on this is that we are talking about very rich and successful business people here in Staveley and the Reuben Bros. Do we not think they would have gone through these guidelines with a fine tooth comb and some very good lawyers before agreeing a deal and paying £17m?
— Nikos Mantalios (@Nikos_NUFC) May 6, 2020
That’s why PIF will put forward directors that aren’t linked directly to any of the matters that have been mentioned. How can anyone prove that Al-Rumayyan for example has has personally been involved in any of these matters?
— Andy Ives (@AndrewIves4) May 6, 2020
Do we not think think stavely and co wouldn’t have expected all this ?? They will have top lawyers also , naive to think this hasnt been looked at thoroughly, she been at the table for a year, paid deposit so i would think she is pretty confident of passing o & d tests ??
— Benbob10 (@ben_bob10) May 6, 2020
Fans thinking this is pointing at the piracy allegations and completely forgetting about Jamal Khasoggi ????
— D?? (@DanWilsonXIII) May 6, 2020
What do we think?
Mohammed bin Salman, who is the chairman of PIF – the company that intends to take an 80% stake in Newcastle, is accused of playing a role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
As well as this, the Saudi regime is accused by BeIN Sports of knowing about video piracy breaches in relation to Premier League matches.
However, Bin Salman will not have his name on the board in this proposed takeover – so it is easy to see why this rule could be causing some confusion.