April 16 – The ongoing saga over the aborted Saudi-led takeover of English Premier League club Newcastle United has taken a new twist with reports that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally approached British prime minister Boris Johnson to intervene.
The proposed £300 million deal put together by a consortium led by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIP) never took place last summer because the Premier League failed to give its approval – and is now going through a private arbitration process.
According to the Daily Mail newspaper, Johnson asked one of his top aides to look into the affair after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned the row could damage relations between the two countries.
A Government spokesman was quoted as saying the sale had been a “commercial matter” and that the Government “was not involved at any point” in the takeover talks.
But according to the Mail, the crown prince urged Johnson to “correct and reconsider” a “wrong” decision by the Premier League which was accused of standing in the way of the deal.
Johnson then allegedly asked Lord Udny-Lister – a Middle East expert and a long-standing aide dating back to Johnson’s time as London mayor – to look into the complaint.
Lord Udny-Lister was said to have responded by saying that he would “investigate”.
The Saudis finally withdrew from the deal last July blaming the Premier League for its collapse to the anger of many Newcastle fans.
Amnesty International’s UK director Kate Allen expressed her concern at the latest revelations by telling Britain’s Press Association news agency: “The bid to buy Newcastle was a blatant example of Saudi sportswashing, so it’s worrying that the prime minister would accede in any way to pressure from the crown prince over the deal.
“Reports that Mohammed Bin Salman made threats about possible damage to UK-Saudi relations if the deal didn’t go ahead only illustrates that this was always more than just a commercial transaction within the football world.”
“At the time that the crown prince was putting this pressure on No 10 (Downing Street), the world was still reeling from the fall-out over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Saudi human rights activists like Loujain al-Hathloul were languishing in jail, and Saudi warplanes were indiscriminately bombing Yemen.
“This whole tangled affair only underlines how there needs to be a proper overhaul of the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test to provide proper human rights scrutiny of who is trying to buy into the glamour and prestige of English football.”
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