Newcastle United journalist Liam Kennedy appeared on the latest edition of the Football Today podcast, titled: ‘What’s next for Newcastle?’, to discuss the Saudi-backed 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.
One of the topics that Kennedy touched on was the “ongoing problems of piracy” concerning the Saudi government and the impact that he believes that had on the Premier League not making a decision with regard to the approval of this takeover bid.
The journalist was asked: “What changed from everyone being so optimistic, to this deal not going through?”
He replied: “We’ve seen the piracy, which has been a constant throughout this. For anybody who doesn’t know out there, BeIN Sports, who are Qatar-owned, own the ‘MENA’ [Middle East & North Africa] rights, so they own the rights to show the Premier League in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“We’ve seen that piracy with regard to a box called ‘BeoutQ’ and we’ve also seen BeIN blocked from showing anything, any kind of their TV, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been a particular issue.”
Kennedy then went on to explain that he doesn’t think that Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record and the issues that were raised over that with regard to this takeover played a significant role in the deal not receiving the Premier League’s approval by the point of the bid’s collapse, going on to declare: “I think it’s more to do with the ongoing problems of piracy,” and stating: “That’s why I stand here today and believe it’ll be very, very difficult for this deal, as it stands, to pass any kind of owners’ and directors’ test when the Premier League took so long to get to the point they did.”
Do you think that the issue of piracy played a significant role in the Premier League not approving this takeover?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
As Kennedy explained, BeIN Sports has had issues with its content being pirated in Saudi Arabia by the pirate television broadcaster BeoutQ. The World Trade Organisation ruled that the Saudi government helped BeoutQ to ‘breach international piracy laws’ and the BBC reported that this could complicate the Toon takeover bid back in June.
Furthermore, BeIN Sports’ chief executive Yousef al-Obaidly reportedly wrote to the Premier League’s hierarchy ‘warning them against the Newcastle takeover’.
With that in mind, and knowing that BeIN Sports is a partner of the Premier League, it may be understandable why Kennedy believes that the issue of piracy ultimately played a significant role in the Premier League failing to come to a decision with regards to approving this Newcastle United takeover bid.