Kieran Maguire: Premier League club in line for Newcastle-style takeover after MP’s claim
Newcastle United may not be the last Premier League team to be bought out in a state-backed takeover.
That is the view of finance boffin Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about Tracey Crouch MP’s recent remarks.
Crouch recommended an independent regulator for English football (IREF) in her recently-published fan-led review into the game.
One proposal within the review is a new owners’ and directors’ test to safeguard clubs from mismanagement and opportunist investors.
As per Sky Sports on 25 November, the former sports minister claimed IREF would “certainly have stress-tested [the Newcastle takeover] more”.
But Maguire claims that IREF will not have the powers to stop state-sponsored takeovers within the Premier League.
“I don’t think they necessarily will be the last team to be bought by a state,” he told Football Insider correspondent Adam Williams.
“The Premier League did spend a couple of years reviewing the takeover application, so it has been tested.
“Looking at the proposals for the owners and directors test, it might stop certain owners coming in. But others would breeze through it.
“In what criteria would a state-backed investment fund be denied access to investing into a private company? I’m not so sure.
“They could have perhaps investigated a bit more. But I don’t think it would have ever been stopped on a legal basis.”
The Premier League ruled that there is no formal link between the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and the totalitarian Saudi state.
But that claim has been heavily disputed by a number of organisations, including human rights group Amnesty International.
In other news, Newcastle United tipped to complete “brilliant” Divock Origi signing after Echo update.