Matt Slater has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s Pod On The Tyne, and he has been discussing the failed takeover of Newcastle United by Amanda Staveley’s Saudi-backed consortium.
The Athletic reporter discussed many issues around the takeover, and he talked about how he believes this takeover could be resolved positively for everyone involved.
It seems as if Slater believes that if Saudi Arabia repair some of the damage that they have done through piracy and take it seriously, then the Premier League would accept their proposal to buy Newcastle.
He said: “There is a win-win here, and the win-win is still the same.
“It’s KSA [Saudi Arabia] get their club; Premier League get Saudi Arabia/KSA to take piracy seriously, BeIN get some kind of pay-off, recompense, some sort of recognition to make right what has been going on for the last few years and to give them some certainty for their business going forward.
“And that is the win-win.”
Does this sound like a good idea?
Yes, I hope they do it
No, this is finished
TIF Thoughts…
Slater suggested this as an option in June, and it looked like Saudi Arabia were taking piracy seriously when they announced a crackdown.
However, they then followed this up by banning BeIN Sports from broadcasting in their country, and then at the end of July, the Saudi-backed bid to buy Newcastle was withdrawn as an impasse had been reached.
In the Premier League’s response to that withdrawal, they made no specific mention of piracy.
Still, Slater seems to think that if Saudi Arabia can resolve those issues and compensate beIN, then they will be able to buy the Toon.