Revealed: The Premier League response to calls for Newcastle United owners to be ousted
There is little expectation among experts and industry insiders that the Premier League will re-examine the Newcastle United ownership structure, Football Insider has learned.
The Premier League claimed to have received “legally binding assurances” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not control Newcastle before it gave the green light to the state’s Public Investment Fund takeover in October 2021.
Premier League CEO Richard Masters said that they had the apparatus to remove PIF as owners should any evidence to the contrary ever emerge.
Many commentators insist that the threshold has now been met with PIF’s claims in documentation submitted to a US court as part of a lawsuit between Saudi-backed LIV Golf and the PGA Tour.
PIF argued that they are entitled to diplomatic immunity as a “sovereign instrumentality” of the Saudi state and also that Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is a sitting minister in the Saudi government.
The human rights group Amnesty International has called for the Premier League to clarify how these new details can be squared with its claim that Saudi Arabia is not involved in operations at St James’ Park.
Premier League clubs have also written to the organisation’s executive branch for an explanation.
But those canvassed by Football Insider do not believe that the Premier League will take any punitive action as to do so would set an unmanageable precedent.
One source familiar with Newcastle’s commercial operations and by extension their global strategy claims that PIF will be bullish about their position because of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
Significantly, it was reported before the takeover that Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman warned then prime minister Boris Johnson that their relationship would be damaged if the government failed to intervene in the process.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire meanwhile believes that legal challenges could arise from PIF’s co-investors in Newcastle should the Premier League take action.
“I agree with the premise that it would be very challenging for the Premier League to go down this route as they could face potential litigation,” he told Football Insider.
“Remember, there are other investors in Newcastle who are not PIF. That could be another source of potential litigation. They will have to tread very cautiously if that is their objective.”
Central to the issue is the imminent introduction of a new owners’ and directors’ test under the powers of a new independent regulator for English football.
Some have speculated that the conditions of the licensing system could light a fire under the Premier League to take a stand against state ownership.
But one sports law expert suggests that the language used in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport indicates that it would be hard to apply these principles retroactively to Newcastle’s owners.
In other news, Newcastle United set sights on signing two Premier League midfielders.