August 17 – Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has finally broken his silence over the doomed £300 million Saudi-led bid to buy English Premier League club Newcastle United.
In a letter to local Newcastle member of Parliament Chi Onwurah, Masters cited the impasse over the league’s owners’ and directors’ test and declared that the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which wanted to buy an 80% stake in the club, declined an offer of independent arbitration.
Newcastle fans are fuming over the failure to seal the deal, the latest in a long line of false dawns. The row even reached the top of government with prime minister Boris Johnson expressing his support for some kind of explanation after more than 108,000 Newcastle fans signed a petition demanding answers from the Premier League.
In his letter to Onwurah, Masters tried to clarify that his organisation wanted to know precisely who would be in charge of the club.
“In June, the Premier League board made a clear determination as to which entities it believed would have control over the club following the proposed acquisition, in accordance with the Premier League rules,” he wrote.
“Subsequently, the Premier League then asked each such person or entity to provide the Premier League with additional information, which would then have been used to consider the assessment of any possible disqualifying events.
“In this matter, the consortium disagreed with the Premier League’s determination that one entity would fall within the criteria requiring the provision of this information.
“The Premier League recognised this dispute, and offered the consortium the ability to have the matter determined by an independent arbitral tribunal if it wished to challenge the conclusion of the board. The consortium chose not to take up that offer, but nor did it procure the provision of the additional information. Later, it (or PIF specifically) voluntarily withdrew from the process.”
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