WHY SAUDI TAKEOVER OF NEWCASTLE COULD POSSIBLY HIT A SNAG.

Mike Ashley has been the owner of Newcastle United since 2007 after a £134m takeover from previous owners and had put it up for sale in 2017. He is on the verge of selling the club for £300m to the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as they are looking set to hold an 80% stake in the club while Amanda Staveley’s group hold 10% and the other 10% coming from British Property investors, the Reuben Brothers.

Murdered Journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s Fiancée, Hatice Cengiz and her lawyers have called for the Premier League to block the takeover of Newcastle United by Saudi Arabia. Western Intelligence along with Hatice Cengiz and her lawyers believe that Mohammed bin Salman gave the orders for Jamal Khashoggi to be killed – which he denies. Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018 seeking for papers to marry Ms Cengiz. His remains till date have not been found.
Qatar based TV channel beIN Sports have written to the rest of the 19 Premier League (PL) clubs, accusing the Saudi Arabian government of driving the theft of PL commercial rights and club’s revenue for nearly three years through its assenting of a beoutQ piracy. The Saudi Arabian government has a part ownership of Arabsat, a company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia whose satellite is responsible for pirating PL matches and showing them on beoutQ for free in Saudi Arabia despite beIN Sports having the right to show the games in the gulf region and are in the middle of a three year deal worth about £500m with the Premier League.

Following the whole issue keenly, there is little reason to doubt that the reason for the piracy actually arises from the Qatar-Saudi Arabia Diplomatic Conflict (also known the Second Arab Cold War) going on between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
The second Arab Cold war is the struggle for regional influence between the GCC and the KSA. The Qatar – Saudi Arabia relations have been strained since the beginning of the Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave that left a power vacuum which both states sought to fill, with Qatar supporting this revolution while Saudi Arabia are opposing it.
The conflict has escalated to the point where the Saudi Arabia are sort of punishing any entity associated with Qatar. The PL is suffering this because beIN sports of Qatar hold the commercial right to broadcast PL matches in the gulf region.
Now, considering this whole covid-19 pandemic, it is clear that the economy of most countries including the UK has suffered and football is one major tool they intend to use in the revival of the economy after the pandemic. Should the Saudi takeover be allowed, it is believed that beoutQ will now have the guts to broadcast more matches for free thereby causing them to lose lots of money.

Amidst all these, there is still the chance that the takeover will still be approved.