Football Finance expert Kieran Maguire has been speaking on the latest edition of The Price of Football podcast about Newcastle United’s proposed takeover and other news from the world of football.
The takeover by PCP Capital Partners, PIF, and the Reuben brothers was withdrawn in July 2020, but in November, Ashley launched a legal case.
He then followed that up with another one last week, and he urged the “dark forces” to step aside and let the takeover through.
This led Maguire to provide some more information about what Ashley’s latest challenge involves.
He said: (9:19) “Mike Ashley has lodged a case with the Competition Appeal Tribunal [CAT], with regards to the blocking of the potential sale to the Saudi Arabian PIF.
“The nature of the complaint by Mike Ashley is that the Premier League lacked objectivity, and also they were acting in either self-interest or in the interests of a small number of clubs who were opposed to the deal going through.
“Now, we don’t know who those clubs are; an educated guess would be that perhaps the big six don’t want Saudi Arabian investment because they don’t want a big seven to be created as far as they’re concerned.
(11:00) “He does have another lawsuit against the Premier League going through; I think that’s going through the traditional courts.
“What Mike Ashley is trying to do here, from what we can make out, is that he’s trying to get compensation.
“Now, where’s that compensation going to end up; it’s going to end up in the pockets of Mike Ashley in all probability. So I think this is his attempt to take things forwards on the back of the collapse of Super League.”
Do you think that this will be successful?
No, nothing will happen
Yes, the takeover will happen
TIF Thought on Ashley’s latest action…
The Toon’s owner is said to be “hellbent” on forcing through this takeover, and by having two legal cases against the Premier League, no one can accuse him of not trying.
However, it is unclear what, if anything, will come from either of these cases, and it is inevitably just going to drag on this takeover saga that started in April 2020.
In other news: ‘Wow’, ‘I am staggered’ – Many Newcastle fans fume over Liam Kennedy’s update