Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan has revealed that he was “approached” by one of their Premier League rivals to buy a 30% stake for £700m.
Mike Ashley’s time as owner of Newcastle United came to an end last October as a consortium headed up by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) purchased the club for £350m.
The club’s fortunes have improved following this takeover. Eddie Howe replaced Steve Bruce and he guided Newcastle to a mid-table finish in the Premier League.
The Magpies have also started this term well as they sit seventh in the league after eight games.
Howe has been backed by the new owners as in the past two transfer windows, around £210m has been spent on signings.
Al-Rumayyan is the governor of the PIF and he has been named chairman of Newcastle. He has admitted that they could have ended up investing in another club, though.
Prior to buying Newcastle, Al-Rumayyan has claimed that they were “approached” to take “30% of the ownership” of a Premier League club “for £700m”.
The Telegraph state that this club is ‘believed to be Manchester United’. The Glazer family are their current owners and last month it was suggested that they would be willing to sell the club for £3.75billion
Al-Rumayyan also indicated that they “looked in Italy and France” for clubs to buy:
“When we looked at it, we looked at it from a financial perspective,” Al-Rumayyan stated via a podcast in Saudi Arabia.
“By the way, it wasn’t the first offer we got regarding a football team. We looked in Italy, France and the UK as well.
“For example, in the UK there was a team that approached us on the basis that we take 30 per cent of the ownership, and we don’t interfere at all in terms of managing the club, for £700m.”
He went onto insist that the Premier League was chosen as it is “the best league in the world”:
“Football, of course, is one of the most important sports there is. Whether domestically (in Saudi) or abroad. It’s the number one sport in the world,” he continued.
“And why the English Premier League? Because it’s the best league in the world. No other league competes with it.
“There are 20 teams, three are relegated and three are promoted. The advantage of the Premier League is that any of the 20 teams can beat the best team in the league.
“We bought Newcastle, who offered us 100 per cent of the ownership. But Amanda Staveley and her husband, who got us the opportunity, told us,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…