English Premier League in hot waters over Saudi takeover deal

The football club Newcastle United has claimed that English Premier League did not act appropriately in its handling of a failed takeover by a Saudi Arabian-backed consortium.

According to the details, in July the group, which included Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, said it had backed out of the deal.

In a statement on the £300 million bid, that collapsed in July, Newcastle United said, “The club and its owners do not accept that Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and the Premier League have acted appropriately in relation to this matter and will be considering all relevant options available to them.”

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Newcastle claims that the Premier League rejected the bid, which was made by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, the chief executive of English Premier League said “I think there is a reasonable expectation on all the parties involved for confidentiality, I think that’s what we were trying to respect.”

Masters also said the Premier League would “look again” at the “issues and specifics” of its owners’ and directors’ test.

Masters went on to say that because the consortium ended its bid before the issue was resolved, there was “never any point” where the Premier League board was “asked to make an assessment on the suitability of all members of the consortium”.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the PIF;  was reportedly at that time ran out of patience with the Premier League’s approval process.