There’s evidence that the government applied pressure for the Premier League to approve the Newcastle takeover, which is certainly on-brand.
As the freshly financially plumpened Newcastle United prepare to start their first summer dripping with oil money, the football equivalent to inputting the cheat codes to get infinite lives on a video game, some interesting details have started to emerge regarding the British government’s involvement in getting the contentious takeover approved by the Premier League in the first place.
A report by the Guardian has stated that ‘extensive efforts to facilitate the deal’ were made by minister for investment Lord Gerry Grimstone from June 2020 on. The deal had run aground amid concerns about Saudi piracy of Premier League and other sports TV rights which had been legitimately bought by the Qatari broadcaster BeIN. The Premier League finally approved the takeover in October 2021, stating that it had ‘received legally binding assurances’ – they did not confirm what these assurances were, still less which laws those concerned might actually be bound by – that the Saudi state would not be involved in the running of Newcastle United.
In response to being asked how the league would know whether Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, who is also the chairman of Public Investment Fund, was giving orders to the club’s directors, chief executive Richard Masters replied: “In that instance, I don’t think we would know. [But] I don’t think it is going to happen.” In summary, the decision-making process of the Premier League over this seems to be shrouded in confidentiality clauses. Predictably, Newcastle’s own calls for an end to this culture of secrecy ended as soon as they got what they wanted.
That this particular government should have been lobbying on behalf of Saudi Arabia shouldn’t be a great surprise. Ethics seem to be fairly near the bottom of their list of priorities, and they have appeared at times…
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