Newcastle United

Newcastle United: Finance expert discusses the club’s legal action against the Premier League

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Image for Newcastle United: Finance expert discusses the club’s legal action against the Premier League

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has recently discussed Newcastle United’s legal action against the Premier League.

On 9th September, a statement was released by the Toon stating that the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover bid to purchase the club had been rejected by the top flight (per Newcastle United).

It was also stated that ‘the club and its owners’ did not accept that the Premier League and its chief executive Richard Masters had acted appropriately and ‘all relevant options’ were being considered.

On Monday, Chronicle Live then reported that Mike Ashley had hired Blackstone Chambers to deal with a legal battle with the Premier League.

So, in the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire shed some light on the firm which had been hired by Ashley and the impending legal battle.

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A nice easy one to start off with. Who scored Newcastle's opening goal of the 2020/21 PL season?

He said: “So, this is litigation between the Premier League and Newcastle United. Now, Newcastle United are employing Blackstone Chambers – who are one of the top legal companies in the country.

“They’ve gone for the number-one man. They’ve gone for our friend Nick De Marco – he’s a very smart guy. He represented QPR against the EFL; Sheffield Wednesday, Derby.

“What’s interesting for me here is that when I looked at the press release, this was saying it’s to do with the Premier League rejecting the takeover of Newcastle United by PIF.

“Now, the Premier League have said, ‘Well, we’ve not rejected it. We’ve just not got round to making a decision.’ So, it’s all going to revolve around the owners’ and directors’ test.

“There’s going to be expert witnesses, there’s going to be thousands and thousands of documents taken and I suspect it’s going to be very, very expensive as well.”

TIF Thoughts…

As can be seen in what the finance expert had to say, seemingly the Toon’s legal action against the Premier League will be a long and expensive process.

Do you think this legal battle will make a difference to the chances of the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover bid going through?

No, it will not happen

No, it will not happen

Yes, there's a chance

Yes, there's a chance

With it having been stated in Newcastle’s statement that Ashley ‘has been fully committed’ to ensuring the Saudi-backed takeover reaches completion, it will be interesting to see if the legal proceedings make a difference.

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