Former Newcastle United forward Malcolm Macdonald has slated the Premier League for the failed Saudi Arabian-backed takeover bid for the club.
In late July, it was announced that the Saudi-backed consortium’s £300m bid to take over the Toon had been ended (per BBC).
A later report then stated that the takeover collapsed after the consortium ‘rejected the Premier League’s offer of arbitration to determine who would own the club’ (per BBC).
In a recent episode of NUFC Matters on YouTube, Macdonald made an appearance and shared his thoughts on the process before slating the top flight.
He said: “Yes, if they’ve rejected [the bid] then you go to arbitration, but there has been no decision whatsoever.
“At the same time, to go back, I personally believe that the Premier League were giving too much credence to the protest groups – they seem to think that they were of an importance.
“Of what importance? This was a business deal that had nothing to do with these other people.
“They wanted to make it a political situation and I found that ridiculous that the Premier League should fall into line with that argument almost, by allowing it to progress and continue and drag it out to 17 and a half weeks.
“It’s way too long for a business deal. The longer it goes on, the stronger it gets that it’s going to fail.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what Macdonald had to say, he was clearly frustrated that the Premier League paid so much attention to the “protest groups” during the takeover process.
Do you think the Premier League paid too much attention to the "protest groups"?
No, I think they had to
Yes, it was ridiculous
Presumably, the retired forward is referring to the appeals which were made to the Premier League by human rights groups against the takeover.
Furthermore, there was also a report from the World Trade Organisation which ruled that ‘the Gulf kingdom was responsible for television piracy’ (via Financial Times).
However, it does seem as though it would have been difficult for the Premier League to ignore these appeals against the takeover.