Will Newcastle be affected by changes to Premier League owners’ and directors’ test?

The test that the Premier League puts prospective club owners and directors through has been the butt of many a joke.

That the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) was allowed to acquire a majority stake in Newcastle United in October 2021 provided critics with more depressing material. PIF is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – an individual that US intelligence agencies believed to have approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, among many other offences – yet sailed through the Premier League’s much maligned owners’ and directors’ test (OADT).

Newcastle’s new owners are hardly the first controversial revenue stream to invest in the Premier League – and they may not be the last depending on the outcome of Manchester United’s proposed takeover – but they have garnered an unprecedented groundswell of criticism.

At the end of March, the Premier League revealed a raft of changes to the OADT. It would be heartening if these alterations came in the wake of protestations from the likes of Amnesty International, but it is more likely that the Premier League were forced into action by the Government’s new white paper which pledged to introduce an “enhanced” version of the OADT.

However it came about, the owners and directors of clubs in England’s top tier are – theoretically – under increased scrutiny. But how will this affect Newcastle’s particularly controversial hierarchy?

The headline alteration to the Premier League’s stiffened OADT is the inclusion of a clause prohibiting human rights abuses.

England’s top flight is deferring to the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020, which defines human rights abuses as “activities which, if carried out by or on behalf of a State within the territory of that State, would amount to a serious violation by that State of an individual’s:

Human rights abuses are one of several “disqualifying events” added to the new OADT. A person or company subject to Government sanctions is now deemed to be one of these red flags – an addition undoubtedly influenced by the protracted sale of Chelsea last summer after Roman Abramovich faced such sanctions.

Other added disqualifying events include criminal offences involving violence, corruption, fraud, tax evasion and hate crimes. If an individual is suspended from the Charity Commission, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Conduct Authority or HMRC, they would also be disqualified.

Any individual even under investigation for one of these disqualifying…