The offer will not have stood up to controversies and the Covid. The Saudi sovereign investment fund interested in the takeover of the English club Newcastle has finally abandoned its proposal to 300 million pounds (333 million euros), announced Thursday, July 30, several British media.
This project to acquire a historic Premier League club had met with significant criticism from human rights defenders, but also from the Qatari channel BeIN Sport for questions of piracy of images to which she had the rights.
“With deep respect for the community of Newcastle and the importance of its football club, we have come to the decision to withdraw our offer to acquire Newcastle United Football Club”, explain the instigators of the takeover in a press release.
“Lack of clarity”
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was to hold 80% of the club’s shares at the end of the operation. The offer, which had been submitted sixteen weeks ago, was stuck in a process of control by the Premier League, which the group seems to have lost patience with, especially given the in the meantime the outbreak of Covid-19 which has strongly affected the economic outlook for football.
“During this procedure, which dragged on in an unpredictable way, the agreement between the investor group and the owners of the club became null and void and our investment assumptions were no longer sustainable”, specifies the press release. “The lack of clarity on the circumstances in which the coming season will start and on the standards that will be imposed for matches, training and other activities” are also advanced as explanations for this about-face.
