Matt Slater has been speaking on the latest edition of the Pod On The Tyne, and he has been discussing the fallout from the failed takeover of Newcastle United by Amanda Staveley’s Saudi-backed consortium.
Slater was invited onto the episode to discuss what went wrong and also the Premier League’s response that arrived last Friday.
One of the topics he discussed was Staveley and claimed that she misrepresented what the Premier League wanted from PIF and the consortium.
It seems that rather than the Premier League wanting Saudi Arabia to be put down as a director of the Toon, as Staveley had initially suggested, in their view, the Saudi state through PIF would be, in fact, a director of the club in this proposed takeover.
He said: “I felt for some time that Amanda Staveley had misrepresented that completely, whether she was doing it intentionally or not, I don’t know.
“She portrayed it in these terms that the Premier League wanted the Saudi state, Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] himself or someone of that ilk to effectively become a director of the club – and that was OTT.
“That’s not what happened; it really isn’t.
“The whole ODT [Owners & Directors’ Test] process is done via the club, so that’s the institution that the Premier League has been talking to – Newcastle United, not PCP.
“Newcastle United proposed the people who they would like to become owners and directors.
“The Premier League look at that and say ‘look, we feel because PIF is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and is effectively the investment arm of that country and is inextricably linked with MBS’ projects; the state is PIF.’”
Do you agree with Slater?
No, he is wrong
Yes, Staveley has got this wrong
TIF Thoughts…
The Premier League claimed in their response to the withdrawal of the takeover that they offered arbitration to settle this issue because they disagreed with the consortium’s view that PIF and the Saudi state were separate.
However, PIF refused and withdrew their offer.
So, it looks like in Slater’s view, Staveley’s assessment that the Premier League asked for Saudi Arabia to be named as director of the club is wrong.
The consortium are looking for compromises to take this deal forward, but it is hard to see how this deal can be saved if that key point can’t be agreed on.