Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been discussing the collapse of the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of Newcastle United.
Last week, it was announced that a consortium which included Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, PCP Capital Partners and Reuben Brothers had ended their bid to buy the Toon (per BBC).
A £300m deal had been agreed to purchase the club from Mike Ashley, however, it is understood the consortium ran out of patience with the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test.
So, in the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire discussed the collapse of the North East club’s proposed takeover.
He said: “The press release, and again you’ve got to take these things with a large dose of salt, said that they were disappointed with the delays and also the continuing uncertainty to do with [the pandemic] has made their decision that they’re going to pull out of the deal.
“People will be making links towards human rights issues, but we already have a Saudi owner at Sheffield United. We’ve got Russian owners, Chinese owners, Thai owners, USA owners, UAE owners – so to separate out one country does seem harsh, I think it’s fair to say.
“I was reading some articles that [said] pressure was put on the Premier League from some of the clubs themselves who don’t like the idea of the ‘big six’ potentially becoming a ‘big seven’ because that will increase competition and some of the clubs at the top don’t want competition.
“I suspect if we drew a Venn diagram, there could be a big overlap between those clubs that have been muttering things to the Premier League that a Saudi takeover isn’t in the best interest of football, with the clubs who are now known as the ‘nasty nine’, who wrote to UEFA and CAS to say that Manchester City’s appeal shouldn’t go ahead.
“So, there’s a lot of politics in Premier League football and this appears to be connected to that as well, sadly.”
TIF Thoughts…
Seemingly the finance expert believes that the clubs who appealed to UEFA and CAS to have Manchester City’s European club football ban upheld may have been roughly the same group that looked to stop the takeover of the Toon.
Do you believe it was wrong for clubs to appeal in these cases to sway decision making?
Yes, it was not right
No, it is fair enough
However, considering that Newcastle themselves were one of the clubs that attempted to have City’s ban upheld (per Daily Mail), perhaps this is a case which suggests that people in glass houses should not throw stones.