Newcastle United journalist Liam Kennedy appeared on the latest edition of the Football Today podcast, titled: ‘What’s next for Newcastle?’, to discuss the Saudi-backed Toon takeover bid after the consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers ended their interest in buying the Toon last week.
One of the topics that Kennedy touched on during his recent appearance on the Football Today podcast is Newcastle United supporters’ frustration with the Premier League.
As explained by Sky Sports, ‘papers regarding the proposed takeover were lodged with the Premier League in April and were still being scrutinised’ up until the consortium pulled out of the deal last week. Considering that some reports had claimed that the Premier League’s checks with regard to potential new club owners usually take just weeks, it may be fair to say that it appears as though this takeover bid was being scrutinised by England’s top-flight for an excessive amount of time.
The group behind this takeover attempt pointed to the “prolonged process” that they had to go through in order to try and receive the Premier League’s approval to complete this deal as one of the reasons behind their decision to pull out of the takeover, as per Sky Sports.
Since then, Newcastle United fans have aired their frustration with the Premier League over how they handled this takeover attempt and as per the BBC, ‘more than 70,000’ Toon supporters have signed ‘an online petition calling for an independent investigation into the Premier League’s handling of the attempted Newcastle United takeover process.’
Kennedy spent some time talking about Newcastle fans’ “loss of faith” in the Premier League during this recent edition of the Football Today podcast, saying: “There has been a distinct loss of faith in the governing body. I think we’re starting to see a real ramping-up of pressure now for the Premier League to make a call.
“[Fans] want the Premier League to answer questions with regards to this and just explain why they were unable, after 16 and a half weeks, to come to a decision.
“We’ve heard from the buyers, they’ve said they’ve answered every question possible with regards to this deal and fans want to know why the Premier League could not make a call.”
Does the Premier League owe Newcastle United fans answers with regard to why they never made a decision on this takeover attempt?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
Considering that the Premier League never ultimately made a decision with regard to whether or not they would approve this takeover, it may be understandable why Toon supporters are “ramping up” pressure on them to explain why their checks took so long that the would-be buyers decided to pull out of the takeover altogether.