Speaking recently on the NUFC Matters podcast, former Newcastle United footballer Lee Clark discussed the club’s failed takeover bid, and criticised the Premier League for allowing other clubs in the league to influence the deal.
Following over three months of the Premier League stalling on giving a decision regarding Newcastle’s proposed £300 million Saudi Arabia-backed takeover, the buying party, consisting of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben Brothers, announced they were pulling out of the deal due to the ‘unforeseeably prolonged process’.
While the Premier League have given no official statement as to why the deal had been awaiting their approval or denial for so long, The Athletic published an article highlighting several different factors that ‘sources connected to the consortium’ had revealed about the process of the deal. One of which was that ‘some of their top-flight rivals’, who were named as Liverpool and Tottenham, ‘were strongly against the takeover and made their opposition evident to administrators’.
On this subject, Lee Clark recently stated on the NUFC Matters podcast that if the Premier League were indeed influenced by other clubs in the league regarding Newcastle’s takeover, then they are heading down a ‘very scary’ path.
He said: “Some of the reasons that have been given out – I’ve already been on record as saying – if the Premier League are starting to let football clubs delve into other football clubs’ own business and be allowed to influence that, we’re going down a very, very scary route.
“Clubs who see someone potentially becoming powerful – and they know what Newcastle can become if they’re financed right because they’d seen that in the 1990s, that they can become a powerful team in the domestic game, and also in Europe, and I think they feared that – if that’s been the case where clubs have been allowed to influence Richard Masters and the powers that be at the Premier League, we’re getting into dangerous territory.”
Do you believe there is still hope for the takeover?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
We have to agree, while everyone was indeed entitled to their own opinion on the proposed takeover of Newcastle United, other Premier League clubs making their feelings known to the Premier League about the deal is not a great look, as there could be a conflict of interest in play.