Money makes the world go ‘round but in the business world of soccer, it normally makes the inheritors go in one direction… up. That could be about to happen to Premier League side Newcastle United as a Saudi Arabian led consortium make plans to buy the club.
Back in 1995-96 Newcastle were very much the team to watch, given the nicknamed ‘The Entertainers’ because of their free-flowing attacking football. At one point it looked like the Premier League was heading to the North East of England as they held a 12 point lead with 15 games remaining. Unfortunately for Toon fans everywhere, Sir Alex Ferguson roped then manager Kevin Keegan into his mind games and their season ended up imploding just like Keegan did in this Sky Sports interview.
Sure, that WAS over two decades ago but the club based on Tyne and Wear may be about to make life difficult for the big boys of English soccer once again with a Saudi Arabian consortium, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, interested in buying the club. The deal is rumored to be in the region of $370 million and current owner Mike Ashley has made no secret of his desire to sell the club. However, there is the stumbling block of beIN Sports, a Premier League rights holder, asking each club to block the deal based on Saudi Arabia’s blatant piracy of their sports stations.
Yousef Al-Obaidly, who is the chief executive of beIN, has apparently written to the chairmen of Premier League clubs warning that “the potential acquirer of Newcastle United caused huge damage to your club’s and the Premier League’s commercial revenues“. Al-Obaidly also wrote to Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, urging him “to consider carefully all the implications” of allowing the takeover.
Funnily enough, that same ask was not made earlier in the season when bin Salman was linked with buying Manchester United.
But why does this takeover matter!?! Well for starters Newcastle could have an available transfer fund the likes never seen before. They could go from small club looking up at the big boys with envy to winning league titles and playing in Europe again. It’s happened before. Just look at what happened with Man City when they were bought out in 2008 and the progression they’ve made since. Newcastle could have similar if not more success given that the blueprints, like a decent stadium, are already there. Outside of the historical big four of Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal only West Ham and the new Tottenham stadiums hold a bigger capacity and while they haven’t had a lot to celebrate recently the fan base is a rabid bunch who will revel in making St James’ Park a fortress once again should glory days return.
If the deal does go through, which we are expected to know in the next week or two, the Newcastle faithful could be singing less about fog on the Tyne (above) and instead of looking forward to some sunny days ahead in the North East of England.
