Mark Douglas has been speaking on the latest edition of the Everything is Black and White podcast about all things relating to Newcastle United.
One of the topics that he spent some time on was the proposed takeover of the Toon by PCP Capital Partners, PIF and the Reuben brothers, which was withdrawn in July.
After the deal was withdrawn, the Premier League claimed that the takeover failed because the consortium refused to go to independent arbitration to settle one particular issue.
That issue was that the Premier League was not convinced that PIF and the Saudi state were separate entities, so offered independent arbitration. The consortium, believing they had provided enough evidence, refused – and the deal collapsed.
Douglas, meanwhile, believes that the Premier League were always against this takeover, and no matter what evidence was provided, it might never have been enough.
He said: “If the PIF are actually providing written assurances from the court of Saudi Arabia, what was the level of proof that [the Premier League] required?
“I don’t think they could ever meet it, and I don’t think [the Premier League] ever really wanted the deal to happen.
“I think they found reasons to keep knocking it back.
“I am not one for conspiracies, but I just felt they were hostile to the deal from the off.”
Do you think the Premier League were against this takeover from the start?
Yes, they never wanted it to go through
No, the consortium just failed to provide enough evidence
TIF Thoughts on the Premier League and Douglas’ view on them…
The consortium insisted that they had provided assurances from the highest levels of the Saudi government that PIF and the state were separate and would have no influence on the running of Newcastle United.
Maybe the consortium should have gone to independent arbitration, but you can see why they thought they had done enough to allow the takeover to move forward.
Therefore, we think that the Premier League should have accepted the evidence provided to them by the consortium and moved the deal on to the next stage – though it begs the question why the consortium was not happy to take the matter to court if it was so confident over the bid’s finer details.