Newcastle United

Newcastle United: Kieran Maguire discusses the media exposure of NUFC’s failed Saudi takeover

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Image for Newcastle United: Kieran Maguire discusses the media exposure of NUFC’s failed Saudi takeover

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been sharing his thoughts on Newcastle United’s failed takeover from Amanda Staveley and her Saudi-backed consortium and the media exposure surrounding the proposed deal. 

This comes after Maguire recently made an appearance on The Price of Football Podcast where he discussed a range of finance-related topics concerning a number of football clubs.

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On the subject of Newcastle’s failed Saudi takeover and the media exposure of it, Maguire had this to say on the matter.

He said: “In terms of the Newcastle deal, I think some of the exposure, which was coming and effectively being driven by Amanda Staveley and the PIF team, was to try to shame Mike Ashley into selling the club because they were aware of his unpopularity with the fanbase.

“Information isn’t given away for no reason whatsoever, there’s always an ulterior motive.”

A little background on PIF’s takeover bid so far…

Do you think Amanda Staveley purposely used the media to try and force the takeover deal?

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Yes

No

No

Back in July, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben Brothers had withdrawn their interest in buying the Tyneside club from current owner Mike Ashley after originally making a bid of £300 million in April.

According to their statement, they claimed that they withdrew their interest in the takeover because ‘the prolonged process under the current circumstances coupled with global uncertainty has rendered the potential investment no longer commercially viable’.

TIF Thoughts on Kieran Maguire’s Newcastle takeover claim…

It appears that from what Maguire had to say in the podcast, he thinks that Staveley was aware of what the media were covering during the process of the proposed takeover and exactly how much they were reporting on it because she was aware of just how much the Toon fans wanted to see Ashley leave the club.

Unfortunately for Staveley and the Newcastle fans, the takeover didn’t happen and Ashley remains in his position at the club so the media exposure of the proposed deal didn’t really help out in that regard.

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