When Newcastle was taken over by a Saudi Arabia-led group in 2021, the Premier League made it crystal clear: This was not a Saudi government takeover.
In fact, the league said in a statement at the time that it had “received legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club.”
At the time, that seemed somewhat dubious. After all, the takeover was led by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, chaired by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman.
Now, new court filings have led to even more doubts over how much separation, if any, there is between Newcastle and the government of Saudi Arabia.
The case actually involves LIV Golf, the breakaway competitor to the PGA Tour that is also funded by the PIF. In court filings this week, Newcastle chairman and PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan is described as a “sitting minister of the government,” and described the PIF as “a sovereign instrumentality of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
In the LIV Golf case, lawyers for the PIF were trying to shield Al-Rumayyan from having to face questions. But in looking to protect the Newcastle chairman, they may have exposed the Premier League club to further scrutiny.
“The Premier League will surely need to re-examine the assurances made about the non-involvement of the Saudi authorities in the Newcastle deal,” said Peter Frankental, Amnesty International’s UK economic affairs director in a statement.
“It was always stretching credulity to breaking point to imagine that the Saudi state wasn’t directing the buyout of Newcastle with the ultimate aim of using the club as a component in its wider sportswashing efforts.”
The Premier League and Newcastle have both yet to comment on the latest revelations.
They will both need to do so at some point, because there are lots of receipts.
…and here’s Staveley telling me PIF was an “autonomous, commercially-driven investment fund” when I asked her who would be running NUFC ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MNmmdpgTiS
— Dan Roan (@danroan) March 2, 2023
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