Newcastle United’s Saudi Arabian takeover, led by Amanda Staveley, will face renewed scrutiny this week from the Premier League after further complaints from human rights activists and fresh questions over the influence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman might have over Sheffield United.
It is believed that the Premier League initially raised no red flags to the £300million takeover in preliminary discussions with Staveley’s PCP Partners, but there are now a raft of complex issues which may slow any approval.
The Premier League’s major worry is opposition to the takeover from beIN SPORTS, one of their biggest TV partners. It says its exclusive TV feed had been stolen and shown for free in Saudi Arabia. It is understood that Sky, the Premier League’s biggest TV partner, had previously written to the US government in support of beIN SPORTS.
In the latest developments, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that:
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is chaired by bin Salman, will own 80 per cent of the club, PCP will have a 10 per cent share and property tycoons, David and Simon Reuben, the remaining 10 per cent.
The reputational damage to the Premier League is expected to be considerable if the deal is approved, after Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was tortured, killed and dismembered by Saudi agents inside their Turkish embassy, said the takeover would ‘greatly stain’ the Premier League.
The Premier League have several issues to resolve before agreeing to the deal. The latest is whether there would be a perceived conflict of interest regarding Sheffield United.
Crown Prince bin Salman, the chairman of PIF, is widely recognised as the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. Sheffield United is owned by his cousin, Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad, who is a more junior member of the Saudi royal family. The Premier League have strict rules, based on City of London takeover regulations, regarding any influence one club owner or director might have on another club.
Human Rights Group Fair/Square have drawn attention to the fact that since 2017, an anti-corruption drive, initiated by bin Salman, has seen mass arrests of scores of Saudi princes, businessmen and government officials, who often have been detained for months without charge.
Human rights groups have questioned whether the initial purge was a genuine anti-corruption drive and, given the opaque nature of the process, it is impossible to be sure.
There is no suggestion that Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad would be embroiled in any anti-corruption drive. But Nicholas McGeehan of Fair/Square says that any prominent Saudi royal or businessman might feel insecure in such circumstances. ‘Some of the most senior and powerful businessmen were detained at the Ritz-Carlton, so Mohammed bin Salman was sending a signal that no one was immune.
‘So there might be a fear that negotiations would go very easily if Newcastle United wanted to buy a player from Sheffield United. There might be a perception that, if the clubs were playing each other for a place in the Champions League, there could be concerns.
‘A look at the evidence would give people solid ground for those concerns. I’d be really surprised if this wasn’t an issue that Premier League clubs were looking at. I’m astonished that more people aren’t talking about it.’
Though bin Salman would not be a director, Newcastle United’s proposed chairman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, is also the chairman of the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and therefore takes direct orders from the Crown Prince.
Ánd though Premier League rules refer specifically to ‘directors’, it comes under a section entitled ‘Directors and Owners’. As such, it could be said to apply to owners, and thus bin Salman.
McGeehan has also raised the subject of close links between Manchester City’s owners, Abu Dhabi United Group, and Saudi Arabia. ADUG is owned by Sheik Mansour, who is a senior minister in the United Arab Emirates government and brother to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed.
City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak runs Mubadala, the investment company of bin Zayed. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been allies in the Yemen war since 2015, during which they have been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including bombing civilians, which they deny. The Saudi-led coalition has also been supported by British military advice and weapons made by British companies.
‘The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are extremely close, they’re strategic allies,’ said McGeehan. ‘Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) is almost a mentor in many respects to Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). MBS tends to follow MBZ’s lead on lots of matters. ‘The concern for the other clubs would be the extent to which those two could cooperate in issues relating to football, which would be a potential problem for the Premier League.’ Manchester City point out that the club is owned by ADUG, which is a private investment vehicle of Sheik Mansour.
The Premier League will make no comment on the ongoing process of approving the takeover. However, they are under pressure from their major broadcast partners to probe PIF about the illegal streaming of Premier League, Champions League and World Cup matches on pirate TV channel beoutQ.
The chief executive of beIN SPORTS, Yousef al-Obaidly, has written to the Premier League and the clubs saying that the Saudi government has permitted the ‘facilitation of the near three-year theft of the Premier League’s commercial rights — and in turn your club’s commercial revenues — through its backing of the huge-scale beoutQ pirate service.’
Though the Saudis recently moved to stop beoutQ being broadcast on the Arabsat satellite, a company in which Saudi has the largest stake, after a court ruling in France, the channel is still widely available through set-top boxes in the region. ‘There’s a long-standing tension between UAE and Saudi Arabia on one hand and Qatar on the other,’ said McGeehan.
Sources close to PIF point to the fact that Arabsat no longer broadcasts beoutQ and insist that it takes time to shut down the set-top box streaming operation. And they insist that bin Salman is a reformer, who is changing the country.
All of the above will tax the Premier League this week, aside from the obvious human rights issues. Premier League rules on directors and owners state that anyone who has ‘engaged in conduct outside the United Kingdom that would constitute an offence … whether or not such conduct resulted in a conviction’ should be barred.
The US Senate have unanimously adopted a resolution that they ‘believe that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi’. The United Nations special rapporteur has said that Khashoggi was the ‘victim of a premeditated extra-judicial execution, for which the State of Saudi Arabia is responsible’. The Saudi government have said the US Senate resolution was based on ‘unsubstantiated claims and allegations’.
The Premier League will point to the fact the British Government are happy for companies to trade with Saudi Arabia despite its abysmal human rights record.
That said, they have an invidious task on their hands. Many club owners looking to sell to the highest bidders will not want any restrictions on overseas investment.
However, others will feel the Premier League’s reputation will be irredeemable if the deal is agreed.
The voice of Hatem Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancee, who is a compelling campaigner, threatens to be a constant reminder of just how cynical and amoral club football in England would have become.