Newcastle United fan Steve Wraith recently took to Twitter to share a letter that was written by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters in response to Gateshead MP Ian Mearns, who wrote to the Premier League chief to question him about the ongoing Saudi-backed Newcastle United takeover bid.
The Saudi-backed Toon takeover bid has been going through the Premier League’s checks since April and according to The Guardian, those checks ‘normally take two weeks’.
In his letter replying to Mearns, Masters stated that the Premier League’s checks ‘cannot be conducted in public’ and ‘are applied with equal rigour to every single purchase of a Premier League club regardless of the prospective owner or director’. The Premier League chief went on to say that he hopes ‘that we will have a resolution to this matter soon but cannot commit to a specific timeline at this stage’.
Wraith’s tweet caught the attention of plenty of Newcastle United fans who flocked to this post to share their thoughts on Masters’ letter.
Thanks to my local @UKLabour MP and friend @IanMearnsMP for writing to Richard Masters at @premierleague and getting a reply and allowing me to put it online. A complete non-reply which i presume is similar to the reply @nufctrust will have recieved. #ApproveTheTakeover pic.twitter.com/1EO71XqcIg
— Steve Wraith (@stevewraith) July 28, 2020
Some Toon fans were critical of the Premier League and Masters in response to this tweet.
Alright. So its just pure incompetence that the epl cant get this done within an acceptable time frame?
— Rick Fury (@rick_vengeance) July 28, 2020
Cop out. Always with the politician style comments. Saying absolutely zilch.
— KK33 (@PeterJameson56) July 28, 2020
Masters is an absolute joke. Over 4 months for this decision.
— Steven pritt (@Stevenpritt3) July 28, 2020
Soon… lol ? he said that a month back so we have at very least another month left. Thanks for this Steve! The pressure needs to continue
— Disco Dave (@DiscoDaveToon) July 28, 2020
However, other Newcastle supporters appeared to be satisfied by Masters’ response to Mearns, with one particular Toon fan calling on his fellow Newcastle United supporters to ‘be patient.’
Are you angry about this letter?
YES
NO
I think it’s a good reply, what was everyone expecting ?
— sam (@SamLennon21) July 28, 2020
There you go we have a response. Hopefully that will quiten people for a while. Be patient and get on with other life in the meantime.
— Mark Scott (@MJScott2) July 28, 2020
I’ll take that for an answer tbh, it’s all he can say really. But it’s written well enough for me to go “fair enough” and wait things out longer, as it will do
— Nathan (@nathanbell0211) July 28, 2020
At least he is suggesting they will make an decision on it
— James Thompson (@Jthompson1989) July 28, 2020
Considering that the ongoing Saudi-backed Toon takeover has been with the Premier League for much longer than the English top-flight’s checks allegedly tend to take, it may be understandable why some Toon supporters didn’t react positively to Masters’ letter claiming that the English top-flight’s checks ‘are applied with equal rigour to every single purchase of a Premier League club’ and he hopes to have this issue resolved ‘soon.’
However, the fact that some Toon supporters replied to this tweet and appeared to be satisfied with Masters’ letter indicates that perhaps not all Newcastle fans are growing frustrated with the length of time that this takeover bid has been going through the Premier League’s checks.