Finance guru: PIF want Premier League ‘exclusivity’ with Newcastle amid latest on big-money bid
Newcastle United will be pleased they remain Saudi Arabia’s Premier League “flagship” after Saudi Media Group’s failed bid to buy Chelsea.
That is the view of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Saudi state’s presence in English football.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund bought the Magpies for £305million in October last year.
UK Government sanctions have forced Roman Abramovich to sell Chelsea, and Saudi Media Group were one of the dozens of interested parties.
Per Sky Sports yesterday (25 March), the invesfment firm made a £2billion bid but were not included in the final shortlist of potential new owners.
Plumley assessed the positives and negatives for Newcastle of another Saudi presence in the Premier League.
“There are two ways to look at this,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“One is that if they are the only Saudi-owned club, they have exclusivity on that. You have the potential for Newcastle to be the flagship for that country.
“The other aspect is that if you have multiple owners from the same country in the league, does that give you some leverage on voting principles. ‘
“We have seen the big clubs buddy up to get towards a majority through these little groups.
“But I also get the feeling that given the financial power they have, they probably aren’t giving it too much thought.
“They are on a different field financially. Their focus is on their club. Everything that happens around them, they’ll react to along the way.”
Newcastle are currently 14th in the Premier League standings, while Chelsea are 3rd.
A final decision on the Chelsea takeover is set to be presented to the Government in three weeks’ time.
In other news, Newcastle United tipped to sign “another Dan Burn” after “£60m” update.