A consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has purchased a struggling team in England’s Premier League after months of delays, …
A consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has purchased a struggling team in England’s Premier League after months of delays, the league confirmed on Thursday. The $409 million purchase of 128-year-old Newcastle United terminates billionaire Mike Ashley’s ownership of the team, which spanned 14 years, according to a CNBC report. Now,80% of the team is owned by the Saudi consortium,10% is owned by PCP Capital Partners, and 10% is owned by developers Simon and David Reuben, the report said. It’s a deal long in the making. In 2020, a potential takeover was abandoned because the consortium couldn’t prove enough separation between themselves and the Saudi state, which also banned Qatar’s Middle Eastern Premier League rights holder beIN Sport from airing matches, the report said. The ban has since been lifted. But before the purchase finally became official on Thursday, it had faced sharp criticism and raised eyebrows among human-rights groups, directed at concerns over the Saudi state’s rights records, Reuters reported on Thursday. «Ever since this deal was first talked about we said it represented a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to sportswash their appalling human rights record with the glamour of top-flight football,» said Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s CEO, in a statement on Thursday.
