Kieran Maguire: This may be real reason PIF chose Newcastle over Chelsea as new details emerge
The consortium that bought Newcastle United may have rejected the chance to buy Chelsea as they were too expensive for Amanda Staveley.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about recent remarks made by the 48-year-old financier.
Staveley’s collective, which is financed primarily by the Saud Public Investment Fund, completed a £305million deal for Newcastle last October.
Per The Sun last Thursday (3 March), Staveley revealed that the consortium had the opportunity to buy Chelsea before settling on the Magpies.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was disqualified as a director by the Premier League yesterday (12 March) over his links to Vladimir Putin, as relayed by BBC Sport.
Staveley had to borrow from previous owner Mike Ashley to fund her 10 per cent stake in Newcastle.
Maguire claims that a multi-billion takeover of the now-imperilled Chelsea may have been too rich for her blood.
“I think price considerations will have been taken into account,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“I suspect that PIF buying Chelsea wouldn’t have been such a challenge for them, or rather for PIF and the Ruben brothers.
“But if you bought them for £2bn, a 10 per cent stake is going to cost you £200m.
“How would Staveley have funded her 10 per cent? We’ve seen stories about how she has had to arrange funding for her 10 per cent stake in Newcastle.“
Newcastle and Chelsea face each other at Stanford Bridge later today (13 March).
Staveley is on record saying that it is not “particularly fair” that Abramovich is set to lose Chelsea because of his relationship with Putin.
In other news, pundit claims Newcastle United have “secret strength” that “people aren’t talking about”.