The proposed £300m Saudi-led takeover of English football club has become highly political. The Daily Mail revealed a message sent by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson following the collapse of the deal last year. It reads: “We expect the English Premier League to reconsider and correct its wrong conclusion.”
In April 2020, Newcastle owner Mike Ashley agreed to sell the club to an investment
consortium including Public
Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), the British financier Amanda
Staveley and the billionaire Reuben
brothers.
The Newcastle Chronicle this week published a series of
emails between the UK government and the Premier League showing how
British officials constantly sought information for months on exactly when the
sale — seen as crucial to Anglo-Saudi relations — would be completed.
Instead, the transaction got stuck in the approval process
for club takeovers. As the Premier
League’s chief executive Richard
Masters has stated,
its board decided PIF was controlled by the Saudi government. (Bin Salman, the
de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, is also chair of PIF.)
That determination meant the Saudi officials would have
needed to provide information on whether its leadership passed the league’s
“Owners’ and Directors’ Test”. That includes a stipulation that potential
owners can be barred if they have committed an act in a foreign jurisdiction
that would be considered a criminal offence in the UK, even if not illegal in
their home territory.
While human rights activists point to the Saudi state’s role
in the killing of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi as a potential disqualifying factor, another
issue is the World Trade
Organization’s ruling that the country was behind beoutQ, an Arabic language pirate
network which had been illegally streaming Premier League football matches
across the Middle East.
The consortium did not accept the Premier League’s position
that it is ultimately controlled by the Saudi government, and refused to engage
in an independent arbitration that would determine the issue. And so the Saudis
pulled put.
A Saudi official declined to comment on whether Prince
Mohammed directly contacted Johnson in regards to the Newcastle deal, but said:
“There were appropriate diplomatic conversations and reassurances that there
would not be government involvement in the deal, or the running of the club and
it would be run by the consortium.” The UK government and Premier League declined
to comment.
All of this still matters because the Premier League and
Newcastle are currently holding arbitration hearings regarding the failed
takeover, with the club hoping the deal can be resurrected.
But a key issue remains whether PIF can be separated from
the Saudi state. Bin Salman’s alleged lobbying of Johnson will be a relevant
consideration in that process. It will undoubtedly take some time to sort out.
I Smell bogus reporting ; the premier league did not make a final decision the Saudis pulled from the deal. So why would the crown Prince ask for a decision to be reversed; secondly it’s easy to say someone refused to comment; without even asking someone
ReplyDelete