What happened with Newcastle’s stalled takeover?
Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners, backed financially by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the Reuben Brothers, reached an agreement with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley in April 2020 to buy the club.
But the takeover seemed to collapse in July 2020 when PIF pulled out, frustrated by a 17-week wait for the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test to be completed.
In March, however, Newcastle owner Mike Ashley announced that he was taking the league to arbitration in an attempt to revive the deal.
He has subsequently opened a second front in his legal dispute with the league by taking them to a competition tribunal, too.
What is the arbitration proceeding about?
The club were set for a confidential, behind-closed-doors arbitration hearing this month to determine whether the PIF is separate from the Saudi state, a point which prevented the proposed takeover from advancing last summer.
The Premier League believes the Saudi state, or at least representatives from it, would be a shadow director and should therefore undergo its test, but the consortium and club insist otherwise.
What is Mike Ashley’s stance?
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is determined to resurrect the £305 million deal — which would see PIF take an 80 per cent stake in the club, along with 10 per cent each for Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners and the billionaire Reuben Brothers — and is also pursuing a separate claim at the Competition Arbitration Tribunal (CAT).
Earlier this month, Newcastle demanded that the Premier League make its takeover arbitration open to “public scrutiny” in their latest explosive statement against the body.
What has Staveley said recently?
Earlier in July, Staveley accused the Premier League of a “closely guarded lack of transparency” and called for “intervention immediately to force the issue out into the open” in an open letter to Tracey Crouch, who is leading a government-commissioned review of football’s governance.
It was the latest in a succession of attacks on the Premier League from the prospective owner.
(Photo: Visionhaus)
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