August 11 – It isn’t every day that the prime minister of a country gets involved in a specific club take-over, but Boris Johnson has called on the English Premier League to explain why it neither approved nor rejected the recently failed Newcastle United deal.
The proposed £300 million take-over of the club was led by a Saudi-led consortium but collapsed after the English Premier League prevaricated for four months.
Nearly 100,000 fans signed a petition calling on the prime minister and the UK government to establish “an independent investigation into the English Premier League takeover process”.
That resulted in Johnson writing to the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust to support their calls for the Premier League to address the situation and give “clarity” on why the matter was not resolved.
“I appreciate that many Newcastle fans were hoping this takeover bid would go ahead and can understand their sense of disappointment,” Johnson said. “I …. agree with their conclusion that the Premier League should make a statement on this case.”
“There must be clarity on why there was a significant delay in a decision being made, and on the reasons why the consortium decided to withdraw their bid.”
Johnson’s intervention will not be lost on critics of the deal that would have seen Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund gain an 80% stake in the club despite the fact that the Saudi kingdom has been plagued by a criticism of its support of industrial scale broadcast piracy of sports rights, and persistent human rights violations.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1713528869labto1713528869ofdlr1713528869owedi1713528869sni@w1713528869ahsra1713528869w.wer1713528869dna1713528869