Newcastle owners want more power as Donald Trump photos emerge – Borson
Newcastle United’s owners want to be important players in the sporting world after pictures emerged of Yasir Al-Rumayyan with US president-elect Donald Trump.
That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Tyneside club are at the centre of Saudi Arabia’s plans to grow its standing within sports.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) bought the north-east giants alongside the Reuben Brothers and PCP Capital Partners in a £305million deal in October 2021.
Al-Rumayyan, who is Newcastle’s chairman and the governor of PIF, was spotted sitting next to Donald Trump at the UFC 309 event in New York on 17 November.
It comes after Al-Rumayyan revealed last month PIF is planning to scale back its international investments.
Newcastle owners to continue investing in sports
But Borson expects the sovereign wealth fund to commit further to sport over the coming years after the Trump photos emerged.
He told Football Insider: “I’m not sure about direct links to Newcastle, but it shows the direction of travel, which is Saudi Arabia both politically and in the sporting sense because we know they are involved in golf as well, directionally I think sport is going to continually be a centrepiece of their presentation to the outside world.
“You have got a signal there as to who the key players are within Saudi and within sport, and Newcastle are at the fore of it.
“I think contrary to some of the noises that were coming out about a kind of reduction of the level of investment, time and focus that Saudi are putting on certain sporting assets, potentially the domestic league more than anything, I think you are going to see that being a very important part for exactly the reasons that we saw Trump there.
“If you have got major sporting events where you can get time sat beside presidents in a social environment building relationships, then of course there is value to that.
“You don’t have to own the sporting event to get that, but it definitely helps.
“I wouldn’t say there is any direct impact on Newcastle, but they are clearly owned by important players that are going to be important over the next few years, even more so under a Trump administration.”
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