Speaking recently on The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, Philippe Auclair revealed a reason he had been told as to why the Premier League took so long in attempting to make a decision regarding Newcastle United’s takeover.
The Guardian reported as far back as April that Newcastle’s £300 million Saudi Arabia-backed takeover had ‘inched closer to completion’ and that no ’11th-hour hitches’ were expected in the deal which was estimated to only take ‘another week to 10 days to complete’.
However, over three months passed and the Premier League had still offered no answer as to whether or not they would be approving the takeover bid, with Premier League chief executive Richard Masters coming under fire for the amount of time the Premier League was taking to make a decision on the matter.
Eventually, the consortium behind the deal, which included Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers, withdrew its bid for the club, blaming the Premier League’s apparent lack of movement in making a call on the takeover.
Speaking recently on The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, Auclair shared what he had been told as to why the Premier League took so long with the deal, and why they did not approve or deny the bid.
He said: “The Premier League actually didn’t take a decision. And the reason why [they] didn’t take a decision, so I’m told, is that there was a great lack of clarity about the ownership structure of this consortium. So who would be in charge of what? Who would be the chief executive? Who would be the president or chairperson or whatever? And apparently there was a great lack of clarity for that.
“Also, you add to that the fact that they had the WTO [World Trade Organisation] report – it’s got nothing to do with Qatar, or other clubs, supposedly having put pressure on the PL [Premier League] to prevent them from taking a decision.
“The World Trade Organisation report was not commissioned by Qatar. It was not commissioned by Liverpool Football Club. It was commissioned by the World Trade Organisation and concluded that there were very strong links between the piracy of one of the Premier League’s main clients in the world and the people who were the potential owners of a Premier League club. I mean, it seems, to me, quite obvious – the Premier League had to be very careful about it.”
TIF Thoughts…
As such, from Auclair’s comments, it would appear that he is laying the blame for the length of time Newcastle’s proposed takeover had taken to be approved or denied at the feet of the bidding party, rather than the Premier League.
Do you still believe that the Premier League are to blame for the takeover falling through?
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