Newcastle United journalist Liam Kennedy appeared on the latest edition of the Football Today podcast, titled: ‘What’s next for Newcastle?’ to discuss the Toon takeover bid after the consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers ended its interest in buying the Toon last week.
Kennedy touched on a number of talking points surrounding this takeover bid during his recent appearance on Football Today, including the possibility of the takeover being rekindled.
As per The Athletic, Amanda Staveley of the PCP Capital Partners firm recently confirmed that she doesn’t ‘want to give up’ on this takeover, while the Reuben brothers have also shared that they ‘want talks with the Premier League to resume’, as per Sky Sports.
However, when asked about the possibility that this deal will be ‘rekindled’ during the recent edition of the Football Today podcast, Kennedy expressed some doubt, saying: “If you ask me that now, I’m more minded to say that I feel the deal is a very, very difficult one to rekindle and get done. There is willingness on all sides but there were issues with this deal, we all know the background to it.
“The issues continued throughout this process and were never really resolved, basically regarding unpicking PIF from the actual Saudi state. [The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia] Mohammed bin Salman is, of course, chairman of both which kind of gets you to the point where you can see the Premier League found it relatively difficult to unpick the two.”
Do you think that this takeover can be rekindled?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
Judging from what he had to say during this recent podcast appearance, Kennedy is not confident that this deal could be revived due to PIF’s involvement and the Premier League’s difficulty with separating PIF from the Saudi Arabian government.
Staveley shares a similar view to Kennedy, as per a 30th July article from The Athletic, which quotes her as saying of the Premier League: “They were effectively saying ‘PIF wouldn’t be the ultimate beneficial owner, we believe it’s actually the government, therefore we want the country to become a director’, which puts them in an almost impossible situation.”
If all of that is to be believed, then it may be understandable why Kennedy is doubtful about the possibility of this takeover being revived.