Steve Wraith was joined by Newcastle United columnist John Gibson and ex-Newcastle United striker Malcolm Macdonald during the most recent edition of NUFC Matters, and spent some time talking about the possibility of Newcastle’s Saudi-backed takeover happening despite the Premier League’s failure to approve the deal.
As per Sky Sports, the consortium that included Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers ended their interest in purchasing the Toon last week after ‘papers regarding the proposed takeover were lodged with the Premier League in April and were still being scrutinised’ up until the group pulled out of the deal.
However, during this recent edition of NUFC Matters, Wraith shared some optimism over the possibility that this consortium could still purchase Newcastle United despite the Premier League’s failure to approve the deal.
He said: “You know John Waugh very well from the Magpie Group days, he says that [the] Premier League don’t have a leg to stand on with this, because if Mike Ashley agrees to sell to PIF and the partners, he can sell those shares to PIF, to PCP and to the Reubens and there’s not really a great deal that the Premier League can do about it.
“The transfer of ownership could be completed. They could then come back and say ‘the deal is done’ and they couldn’t actually prevent Newcastle United [from] operating as a football club because it would be [the] prevention of a business. It’s actually a very fine line that the Premier League are treading here. It’s ‘prevention of trade’ I think it’s known as.
“That situation, if the PIF can be brave enough to make it, could actually force the issue.”
Do you think that this takeover could happen without the Premier League's approval?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
As per The Financial Times, the Premier League’s clubs agreed to tighten ownership rules back in 2017 to ‘block takeovers from disreputable owners.’
This article claims that the Premier League’s clubs voted to allow the Premier League to block a takeover ‘if the league has reason to believe it has been misled during a proposed change of control’ and this article also claims that the Premier League ‘could bar potential owners if there is evidence they have committed an act in a foreign jurisdiction that would be considered a criminal offence in the UK.’
With that in mind, the claim that this takeover could happen without the Premier League’s approval might be questionable, as it appears the Premier League has got plenty of power to veto a takeover if they see fit.