(Photo by The Independent)
October 2021 will go down in the Football history books as the site of one of the biggest takeovers in the history of the sport, with a Saudi-Arabian-backed takeover of one of English Football’s sleeping giants, Newcastle United, with a deal reportedly worth £305m being completed in the last few days. This has put previous owner Mike Ashley’s 14-year spell as the owner of Newcastle United to bed to the delight of a large majority of Newcastle fans who felt that Ashley was holding the club back with his lack of interest in investing in the team, leaving them in the dust compared to other big teams in the league. With this new takeover, Newcastle fans are dreaming, with a reported initial investment of £190m seemingly on the horizon for the January transfer window, Newcastle are on the cusp of being transformed into contenders again. This comes after Financier Amanda Staveley who fronted the consortium that purchased the Northeast team, has stated that they intend for Newcastle to be a team that are “regularly competing for major trophies”, even going as far to say that they hope to win the Premier League within the next 5-10 years.
The Premier League issued a statement that said: "The Premier League, Newcastle United Football Club and St James Holdings Limited have today settled the dispute over the takeover of the club by the consortium of PIF, PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media.
"The legal disputes concerned which entities would own and/or have the ability to control the club following the takeover. All parties have agreed the settlement is necessary to end the long uncertainty for fans over the club's ownership.
"The Premier League has now received legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club.
"All parties are pleased to have concluded this process which gives certainty and clarity to Newcastle United Football Club and their fans."
This deal had been in the making for around the last 18-months, with an initial agreement being reported in April 2020, which resulted in the buyers walking away when the Premier League stepped in over a disagreement about the Saudi-Arabian Government and their proposed role in the takeover, with fears that they would be controlling the club which have now been resolved.
The takeover has been led by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) which have put forward 80% of the deal and is separate to the state, with assets of £250bn, which now makes Newcastle United one of the richest clubs in world football. Now, if you are asking yourself, what on Earth is a PIF (just like I did when I learned this news), then allow me to explain. I found a great article by Rick Kelsey on BBC News which I will link at the bottom of this article that explains what the PIF is and how they generated the obscene amount of money required to purchase and sustain a club like Newcastle. To put it simply, the Saudi-Arabian Public Investment Fund is essentially a ‘state savings account for the Saudi Arabian government’ which makes its money mostly through oil, which is sold all over the world, this money is then invested into other ways to make money such as in Disney, Facebook, Uber and now, Newcastle United.
Now on the other hand, whilst this all seems like a dream come true for Newcastle fans, there has been a lot of opposition to the deal from a range of backgrounds. Notoriously, Saudi Arabi has been accused of human rights abuse, especially regarding women and people from LGBTQ+ backgrounds, whilst there are also allegations of the PIF’s chairman, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (the son of Saudi Arabia’s king), ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was critical of the Saudi government, which has been denied numerous times by the Saudi government. This deal has come with people arguing that it is a form of ‘sportswashing’ which is when some countries invest in sport as a distraction from poor human rights records, potentially tainting the move that Newcastle fans have been dreaming of since Mike Ashley initially put the club for sale in 2008 and then again in 2017. Others argue that the move is ruining the game of football by just allowing anyone to compete and spend what they like when they are taken over, with Manchester City apparently holding an ‘emergency meeting’ to discuss the takeover, (which I find hysterical as they were one of the clubs that defined the idea of oil money buying success, but I digress), as Newcastle are now one of the richest clubs in the world after the takeover.
This takeover has put an even bigger heap of pressure over the head of current manager Steve Bruce, with the club currently sitting at a measly 19th place with 3 points and a record of 0 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses. With the new takeover, Newcastle fans are wagging their tongues at the prospects of new signings, on the pitch and in the dugout, it seems, with a recent poll by the Newcastle United Supporters Trust suggesting that 94% of fans want Bruce to leave, with Bruce expected to be relieved of his duties before their match against Tottenham on Sunday, the first match since the takeover has been completed. Managers that have been linked with the job having an array of international and domestic success with household names like Antonio Conte, Lucien Favre, Roberto Martinez being some of the ones discussed with a potential move. In terms of transfers it is very much an exciting time to be a Newcastle fan, with the reported £190m investment in January being used to sign mega stars or build an incredibly efficient and effective team to kick Newcastle on to be contenders in the next few years, with Sky Sports reporting a supposed raid on Manchester United for Donny Van de Beek, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Eric Bailly, with some reports even suggesting moves for Tottenham and England ace Harry Kane. Many liken this period to the one Manchester City had in 2008 by Sheikh Mansour, with this pushing the team on to seriously compete on a domestic and even potentially a European stage as well.
As previously mentioned, this takeover makes Newcastle one of the richest clubs in the world, with this shocking list of the 10 richest owners of clubs in the world, with Newcastle’s owners being around 15 times richer than the owners of Manchester City. In fact, you could add up all the other teams and they are still combined not as rich as the consortium. Truly terrifying numbers.
(Photo by skores)
This takeover has put Newcastle fans back in a position of being allowed to dream, with the club’s slow decline during the Mike Ashley era being seen by many as a shame that a team that can still draw 50,000 fans to home games each week and with legendary players like Shearer and Gascoigne, have been put on the back burner. The last time that Newcastle won a domestic trophy was 1955 when they won the FA Cup. Even as a Manchester United fan myself, the revival of Newcastle has been something I have been expecting for a long time, a club with a passionate fanbase that have been starved of success for a long time, with a backlog of iconic players and moments that are finally able to be back in a position of competing and pushing the other big teams to the max. It is certainly going to be an interesting first few years with every pair of eyes being fixed to each new signing and how they decide who to bring into the fold. Do they go for a Real Madrid strategy of buying a ‘Galactico’ level signing each season? Do they heavily invest all at once to try and build a team balanced with exciting youth and game winning experience? Or do they go and splash a loaf of cash and see little to no benefit from it? Time will very much tell.
Link to Rick Kelsey’s article on BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-58842557.amp
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