A Saudi consortium led by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has bought English club Newcastle United. The operation has been successful after 18 months of disputes, since the Premier rejected this purchase due to piracy problems in the Middle Eastern country with the operator BeIn Sports, one of the owners of the rights to the competition. This has caused the operation to have several conditions, including the veto of the Saudi royal family.
After the purchase, Newcastle has become the richest club in the world or, at least, they have the most wealthy owners, since the fund has eleven times more capital than Sheikh Mansour, the owner of the club until now. richest, Manchester City. Specifically, the fund has 320,000 million euros. As the club has already announced, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, director of the fund, will become the executive president of the club.
This operation completely changes the ownership of Newcastle. The purchase, worth 300 million pounds (354 million euros), ends the 14-year rule of British billionaire businessman Mike Ashley, and will give the Saudi consortium 80% ownership, with 10% an additional 10% to property developers Simon and David Reuben, and another 10% to PCP Capital Partners, owned by British investor Amanda Staveley.
The new team president said in a statement that “we are very proud to become the new owners of Newcastle United, one of the most famous clubs in English football. We thank the Newcastle fans for their tremendously loyal support throughout over the years and we are excited to work together with them.
Amnesty International has already warned Newcastle after the operation
Arab capital has been entering the king of sports with great force for a decade. However, Saudi Arabia’s poor record regarding the human rights of its citizens leads institutions to think that this interest in this sport, which gathers spectators from all over the globe, is no more than a money laundering movement. image.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has urged the Premier League to prioritize human rights issues over the inflow of large capital from these types of owners. “Since this deal was first discussed, we said it represented a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to wash down its appalling human rights record with the glamor of top-flight football,” said Sacha Deshmukh, executive director of the Organization in the United Kingdom, as reported by CNBC.
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