Lee Ryder has been speaking on a recent episode of the Everything is Black and White Podcast.
He has been discussing the fallout from the Premier League’s response to the failed takeover of Newcastle United by Amanda Staveley’s Saudi-backed consortium.
The bid was withdrawn on 30th July, and finally, last Friday, the Premier League responded with what happened as the takeover of the Toon came to a crashing halt.
While Ryder is not ruling out a future takeover at some point, he doesn’t want to raise expectations too high, with fans having been put through the drama of the latest unsuccessful attempt to bring an end to Mike Ashley’s reign at St. James’ Park.
He said: “Is it dead in the water? Hard to say.
“Newcastle United will always be linked with takeovers; the bidding party could come back with different investors.
“They could even call the bluff of the Premier League and say ‘okay, we will take the arbitration’, then if a decision is made and then they have to get in a room and go through all the paperwork that gets you to become a Premier League member, we’ll have to wait and see.
“You can never say it’s all over, but I think the last thing at the moment fans want is false hope.”
Do you think the Staveley deal should be moved on from?
Yes, it is time to move on
No, there could be something in it
TIF Thoughts…
Since the Premier League issued their response, in which it is claimed that the consortium was offered arbitration to resolve the issue of who would be in control of the club, sources from within the consortium have claimed that offering arbitration usually happens in the appeal process, thus their rejection of the Premier League’s proposal.
This was the main thing that came out of the Premier League’s response, and PIF refused the offer of arbitration – but also did not provide the assurances the league was after.
The logic appears to be that their withdrawal meant that the Premier League never made a decision, so using arbitration to decide who would be in charge of the Toon may not have appeared to be the appropriate course of action.
However, the consortium claims that the Premier League was sent assurances from the highest level that there would be no Saudi state interference.
It is unclear what will happen with that bid now, but there is now another bid on the table from the BN Group, involving ex-Toon striker Michael Chopra.
So perhaps a takeover of the Toon may still happen – but not necessarily by the Staveley group.