Is the Newcastle United FC takeover on the verge of falling apart or is it near the finishing line?

It has been 25 weeks since the very first rumours about the potential £300M Newcastle United’s takeover. As of right now, the situation in the North-East English club is as unclear as in the start of the gossips- the season in the top tier of English football is set to start in 7 weeks’ time and while most of the clubs are ready to welcome newcomers at their teams, ‘The Magpies’ are powerless to offer an improved contract to Allan Saint-Maximin nor to their manager, Steve Bruce. In this piece of writing, a chronology of the events which are introduced to the public will be presented as well as a possible answer to the question is the takeover going to happen.

January 27, 2020: Day One

The very first announcement about an interest from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) to purchase Newcastle United FC for a reported fee of £340M emerged from the media outlet, The Wall Street Journal, in late-January. The chairman of PIF is the person who became popular as ‘the new rich owner of Newcastle’- Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud or just MBS. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has been thought to be actively discussing a possible buyout with Amanda Staveley- a renowned finance broker well-known for her good relationships with wealthy Middle East investors. Her financial advisory firm, PCP Capital Partners, played an important role in the successful Sheik Mansour Manchester City’s takeover back in 2009. Amanda has also been leading the previous talks with the current Newcastle owner, Mike Ashley, and other probable buyers which ended up in failure. The story gave understandable hopes to all fans of ‘The Magpies’ who still want to see the back of Mike Ashley as soon as possible.

March 24, 2020: Premier League has been informed about the takeover

Five days later to the above-mentioned date, became public knowledge, thanks to The Telegraph, that Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners firm formally informed the Premier League that a buyout bid was in progress to try and complete the purchase of Newcastle United. What we also managed to understand was Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund taking an 80% stake in the club, with PCP Capital Partners and the property developers David and Simon Reuben taking 10% each if the takeover is successful. What followed after that was the mandatory Fit and Proper Person’s test, which had to investigate the past activities of everybody involved in the consortium. The testing period was believed to have started on 9 April this year.

May 20, 2020: The takeover ‘has been given the green light’

Approximately 6 weeks after the start of the Owners and Directors test, most of the reliable sports websites came up with the story that the Premier League had approved the Newcastle United’s takeover meaning that all the paperwork was done and dusted, with an official announcement expected in the following days, or even hours. Many thought that Mike Ashley’s departure is closer than ever, but something completely changed the already complicated situation.

July 14, 2020: Saudi Arabia permanently cancels beIN Sports licence/ Hatice Cengiz’ plea to the Premier League

In order to understand the whole situation, we need to look at what happened way back in 2017. In the wake of the diplomatic crisis between Qatar and other Arab nations, the beIN Sports channels (Qatari-based network) were banned in the United Arab Emirates on 13 June 2017, and Saudi Arabia prohibited beIN from selling its subscriptions in the country. This meant it became impossible for the people living in Saudi Arabia to watch any kind of sports events legally as they were relying on beIN Sports for that. Nevertheless, Saudis were quick to respond by creating beoutQ- pirate pay television broadcaster simulcasting beIN Sports. In that way, inhabitants of Saudi Arabia were able to watch all major European and intercontinental competitions despite not having the rights to do so. Further investigations revealed beoutQ wasn’t an invention of ordinary hackers, as Saudi Arabia initially stated, but was part of an integrated system with solid financial support. What’s more, beoutQ were actively selling set-top boxes just like a usual television broadcaster making it seem legit. This unavoidably led to the frustration of beIN Media Group which accused the creators and supporters of such actions of "normalising piracy". Yousef Al-Obaidly, BeIN Media Group chief executive, also explained that such wrongdoings would inevitably reduce the value of its bids for future rights deals, as it can no longer guarantee that its rights would be protected which leads us to 14 July 2020. On this Tuesday morning, it was publicly announced that Saudi Arabia, on their behalf, terminate the licence of beIN Sports in the kingdom despite them not being able to broadcast any games there since 13 June 2017. This time, though, piracy networks such as beoutQ, IPTV (which tried the same strategy to simulcast beIN), etc. aren’t allowed to show any footage which originates from beIN within the limits of Saudi Arabia. As Mohammed bin Salman is the chairman of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (or in other words, he is an incredibly important person to the kingdom) he is linked with the whole saga which would inevitably dwindle his chances of successfully passing the Fit and Proper Person’s test. You think the whole situation couldn’t be any more complicated for The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia… it could.

Countries in the Middle East are infamous for violation of human rights as well as little or no freedom of speech. Saudi Arabia as well as MBS are no exception to the general opinion. Mohammed bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince on 21 June 2017 and several months later, November 2017, used his power to order wealthy and prominent businessmen and princes to be placed under house arrest in Riyadh's Ritz Carlton hotel. They were held there for weeks until signing over parts of their fortunes. Salman’s explanation was that this was part of an anti-corruption crackdown, which had the plan to return billions of dollars back to PIF. However, many were quick to outline that the people who were locked in the Ritz Carlton hotel happened to be MBS’s rivals during his rise to power. Less than a year after that (March 2018), a credible Saudi Arabian journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, revealed that “was ordered silent” while the media were still actively covering the issue.

“MBS said to me- ‘You’re not allowed to tweet or write your column or give comments to foreign journalists’ […] When the arrests started happening, I flipped. I decided it was time to speak […] The people MBS arrested were not radicals. The majority were reformers for women’s rights and open society. He arrested them to spread fear. He is replacing religious intolerance with political closure.”

Khashoggi’s freedom of speech perhaps wasn’t of Salman’s liking which might have resulted in Jamal being tortured to death on 2 October 2018. This was another sign of MBS’s intolerance towards people who are against his views and actions. Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, once again tried to remind the Premier League directors (she has also written a letter 2 weeks prior to this one) with what type of person they are dealing and what could be the result of allowing such a businessman to rule a football club. In a short plea on 12 July this year, she explains:

"In short, we are begging you to do the right thing – Saudi Arabia must not be allowed to buy its way into the Premier League while our loved ones languish in jail under the most dreadful of circumstances. They have been beaten, tortured, threatened with murder and sexual assault, held in isolation – and we fear they could die at the hands of their captors just as many, including Jamal Khashoggi, have died before them. It is not too late to do the right thing. Football is the global game and you operate its most popular league – you have a unique opportunity to demand change. The purchase of Newcastle United Football Club by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the light of the treatment of our loved ones and the human rights abuses outlined in this letter and elsewhere, is a moral outrage, would cause irreparable damage to the Premier League’s reputation and may well contravene your own rules. We are begging you – please stop the deal and join our calls for the freedom of all human rights campaigners held in Saudi prisons.”

All in all, some Newcastle fans were over the moon when they learned about the net worth of Mohammed bin Salman. Nevertheless, if things aren’t going his way, he could be even more dangerous to the club than the current owner, Mike Ashley. Last but not least, the takeover is anything but close to being completed- the Premier League directors are yet to decide the future of Newcastle United’s ownership.

*Update*

July 30, 2020: Game over

A few days after publishing the article, an official announcement was released that the Saudi-backed consortium have apparently pulled out of the long-waited takeover. The statement read:

"With a deep appreciation for the Newcastle community and the significance of its football club, we have come to the decision to withdraw our interest in acquiring Newcastle United Football Club. We do so with regret, as we were excited and fully committed to invest in the great city of Newcastle and believe we could have returned the club to the position of its history, tradition and fans' merit. Ultimately, during the unforeseeably prolonged process, the commercial agreement between the Investment Group and the club's owners expired and our investment thesis could not be sustained, particularly with no clarity as to the circumstances under which the next season will start and the new norms that will arise for matches, training and other activities."