Saudis taking over Newcastle | Maybe not

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stevoc

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Have they got over it yet? Or are they still starting parliamentary petitions, writing to their local MP's, calling for government investigations into corruption in football and camping outside the PL offices?

OK? I think a Saudi takeover would be disgraceful. A great club deserves better.
You would think most fans who want whats best for their club would share that sentiment. Sadly not it seems.
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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Have they got over it yet? Or are they still starting parliamentary petitions, writing to their local MP's, calling for government investigations into corruption in football and camping outside the PL offices?



You would think most fans who want whats best for their club would share that sentiment. Sadly not it seems.
The fans would be seeing what City are achieving. KSA will even put more money into the club than PSG and City.

I have never heard any media person say anything about City owners Human Rights record at all. Why would the fans care when they are never reminded of the sportswashing.
 

Dave Smith

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Personally, I am surprised KSA are going for Newcastle and not a West Ham. I would've thought if they couldn't get their hands on a Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal they would go for a non entity London club rather than one from the North.
 

adexkola

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The fans would be seeing what City are achieving. KSA will even put more money into the club than PSG and City.

I have never heard any media person say anything about City owners Human Rights record at all. Why would the fans care when they are never reminded of the sportswashing.
If you follow the game on twitter or reddit or forums like these you will hear about regime atrocities. If acquisitions of football are done for whitewashing then they have failed massively
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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Personally, I am surprised KSA are going for Newcastle and not a West Ham. I would've thought if they couldn't get their hands on a Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal they would go for a non entity London club rather than one from the North.
I stayed in KSA for a while and one thing I know for sure is they want United or Liverpool. MBS wants the biggest and shiniest things. Liverpool and United would have told not under any circumstance straight away for them to not even try.
 

Dumbstar

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I stayed in KSA for a while and one thing I know for sure is they want United or Liverpool. MBS wants the biggest and shiniest things. Liverpool and United would have told not under any circumstance straight away for them to not even try.
That's some good news at least.
 

diarm

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A Newcastle supporting mate tells me the email that was sent to staff about the shutdown of the club store says they expect new owners to be in place by the 25th of this month.

That would be a pretty surprising turnaround if true, and an astonishingly well kept secret.
 

Hulksmash

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I think it's good for the league since Newcastle has a huge Fan base and will be another big club.

More Entertainment for the league
 

Chairman Steve

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Why does it have to be English clubs with these guys? Is club ownership less strict here? Is Premier League more enticing publicity wise? (they sure as hell don’t need that TV money).

Cant they just think “I’m going to buy a La Liga club and give Real and Barcelona a legit run for their money”?
 

Kasper

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Why does it have to be English clubs with these guys? Is club ownership less strict here? Is Premier League more enticing publicity wise? (they sure as hell don’t need that TV money).
Well yes of course to both questions. Biggest marketable league in the world with the most followers and no ownership regulations in place like e.g. Bundesliga.
 

Hulksmash

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Why does it have to be English clubs with these guys? Is club ownership less strict here? Is Premier League more enticing publicity wise? (they sure as hell don’t need that TV money).

Cant they just think “I’m going to buy a La Liga club and give Real and Barcelona a legit run for their money”?
Because everyone watches Premier League and it's the biggest marketable league. Spain , Italy , France are not attractive for Investment.

Bundesliga could be also attractive for them but they have blocked Ownership
 

stevoc

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The fans would be seeing what City are achieving. KSA will even put more money into the club than PSG and City.
So?

I wouldn't want them to buy United no matter how much money they would spend.

I have never heard any media person say anything about City owners Human Rights record at all. Why would the fans care when they are never reminded of the sportswashing.
You have never heard anyone in the media mention the poor human rights rights records in some of these countries?

What do you mean by media, sports media?
 

VidaRed

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Personally, I am surprised KSA are going for Newcastle and not a West Ham. I would've thought if they couldn't get their hands on a Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal they would go for a non entity London club rather than one from the North.
If they're buying a northern club then everton would be a better choice imo.
 

Ali Dia

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Newcastle are like the guy who lost the winning lottery ticket! Can the deal be saved? I couldn’t really care less :lol:

their fans are as deserving of some joy as any at this stage. Money in football is just gone beyond crazy but you wouldn’t wish Mike Ashley on your worst enemy. If they can upgrade their players then best of luck to them. It’s up to us to set the bar.
 

kingwaynerooney

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Because everyone watches Premier League and it's the biggest marketable league. Spain , Italy , France are not attractive for Investment.

Bundesliga could be also attractive for them but they have blocked Ownership
How is bundesliga more attractive than giving barca and madrid, two biggest clubs in the word, a run for their money?

Atletico with unlimited money to spend would be a great investment. But I think those teams are fan own or something?
 

Bubz27

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Asking Boris to intervene sounds like a threatening situation.
 

Bertie Wooster

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Personally, I am surprised KSA are going for Newcastle and not a West Ham. I would've thought if they couldn't get their hands on a Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal they would go for a non entity London club rather than one from the North.
Yeah, I was having this conversation with my brother the other day. He's always amazed no hugely wealthy foreign owners have bought Newcastle ages ago as they're 'a big club with a big fanbase'.

But I'm not really that surprised it's taken this long as it's not like they've had any current, or even past, success, and so you still have to work to build up that success - and you're then stuck with a team based in an unglamorous and relatively isolated place like Newcastle. Much more appealing, I imagine, to work to build up success with a club based in London, Manchester, Liverpool, etc.

On a side note, much is (mostly rightly) said of Ashley's regime. And how they should be doing better. But were do Newcastle sit in a league table of British owned clubs? It seems virtually impossible for British owners to compete with many of the foreign owners, and they're expanding farther down the table. How many British owned teams are ahead of Newcastle right now? I don't know the answer, but I imagine it's a few but not many?
 

Dave Smith

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Yeah, I was having this conversation with my brother the other day. He's always amazed no hugely wealthy foreign owners have bought Newcastle ages ago as they're 'a big club with a big fanbase'.

But I'm not really that surprised it's taken this long as it's not like they've had any current, or even past, success, and so you still have to work to build up that success - and you're then stuck with a team based in an unglamorous and relatively isolated place like Newcastle. Much more appealing, I imagine, to work to build up success with a club based in London, Manchester, Liverpool, etc.

On a side note, much is (mostly rightly) said of Ashley's regime. And how they should be doing better. But were do Newcastle sit in a league table of British owned clubs? It seems virtually impossible for British owners to compete with many of the foreign owners, and they're expanding farther down the table. How many British owned teams are ahead of Newcastle right now? I don't know the answer, but I imagine it's a few but not many?
Running down the league:

West Ham
Tottenham
Palace
Brighton
Newcastle
 

Chipper

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Running down the league:

West Ham
Tottenham
Palace
Brighton
Newcastle
Palace is a bit of a mystery according to Wikipedia. Not sure if that's right?

It says Steve Parish, British chairman of the club has 18%, then there's a few minor shareholders. The biggest portion is held by Palace Holdco LP, based in Delaware with 67.5% and that's the bit that's the unknown part. Parish has stated that 2 Americans, Joshua Harris and David S. Blitzer are major parts of Palace Holdco, and that they own 18% of the club each in total too. It's apparently unknown who has the rest of Palace Holdco so the club could well be majority American owned. Of the shares that are known about Americans are the biggest owners.

Either way Newcastle still bottom of the pile.
 
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Dr. StrangeHate

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So?

I wouldn't want them to buy United no matter how much money they would spend.



You have never heard anyone in the media mention the poor human rights rights records in some of these countries?

What do you mean by media, sports media?
Yes sports media. Not everyone listens to world news.
 

stevoc

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Yes sports media. Not everyone listens to world news.
Fair enough, but that's natural it's not the job of someone in sports media to comment on human rights abuses. Their job is to report on football not politics.

But that would be no excuse for someone eg a football fan to be completely ignorant of the human rights records of some of these middle eastern states.
 

flappyjay

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How is bundesliga more attractive than giving barca and madrid, two biggest clubs in the word, a run for their money?

Atletico with unlimited money to spend would be a great investment. But I think those teams are fan own or something?
It's the TV money I remember the rich Malaga owner complaining about this back when they were decent. Well run premier league clubs are self sufficient and don't need the owners financial injection every year.
 

RoyH1

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Why does it have to be English clubs with these guys? Is club ownership less strict here? Is Premier League more enticing publicity wise? (they sure as hell don’t need that TV money).

Cant they just think “I’m going to buy a La Liga club and give Real and Barcelona a legit run for their money”?
PL is by far the most popular league in the world. You're right in Real and Barcelona being the two biggest fish in the ocean outside England, but they're owned by their members and are absolutely not for sale. I read somewhere once that the Qataris once inquired hard about both clubs but were completely rebuffed
 

Swedish_Plumber

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I’m a bit out of the loop with all of this. Why was there such a fuss kicked up about the Saudis buying Newcastle when similar has happened before with city?
I know they are a horrible regime but there are similar human rights abuses happening in Qatar too!
 

Wolf1992

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We don't need another financially doped club in the Premier League, let em buy Lyon to give PSG a run for their money.
They want Newcastle, not Lyon.Invest in England is safer.

Premier League would be more competitive.
 

Hulksmash

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Let's be honest the Top 6 won't allow more competition. It is what it is
 

GlasgowCeltic

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Would love to see Newcastle with big money backing, not interested in whether it would displease the old guard or not
 

Tyrion

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I’m a bit out of the loop with all of this. Why was there such a fuss kicked up about the Saudis buying Newcastle when similar has happened before with city?
I know they are a horrible regime but there are similar human rights abuses happening in Qatar too!
I think the main issue was a conflict between the Saudis and BeIN sports in Qatar. Apparently the Saudis were undermining their broadcasting rights in the Middle East because they hate Qatar and BeIN, a PL broadcaster, objected. Human rights were an issue to many journalists (the Saudis did recently abduct and murder a journalist from an embassy) but to the PL, "fit and proper" basically means "adds to our perpetual money tree". If they didn't undermine the PL broadcaster rights, I reckon the Taliban would be allowed to buy Wolves.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...to-further-complicate-300m-newcastle-takeover
 

Tyrion

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Would love to see Newcastle with big money backing, not interested in whether it would displease the old guard or not
I'd love to see them get big money backing too but not to launder the reputation of an autocratic regime that murders journalists for dissent.

Getting Mbappe shouldn't trump murder (though I get that it does for many football fans).
 

Swedish_Plumber

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I think the main issue was a conflict between the Saudis and BeIN sports in Qatar. Apparently the Saudis were undermining their broadcasting rights in the Middle East because they hate Qatar and BeIN, a PL broadcaster, objected. Human rights were an issue to many journalists (the Saudis did recently abduct and murder a journalist from an embassy) but to the PL, "fit and proper" basically means "adds to our perpetual money tree". If they didn't undermine the PL broadcaster rights, I reckon the Taliban would be allowed to buy Wolves.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...to-further-complicate-300m-newcastle-takeover
Cheers for the reply! Totally get what you mean by the last point too. So much hypocrisy floating about with regards to this as the ESL in particular.
 

Tyrion

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Cheers for the reply! Totally get what you mean by the last point too. So much hypocrisy floating about with regards to this as the ESL in particular.
No problem. I wasn't sure about the details myself until your post made me look.

It is hypocritical. Honestly over the last several years, I've become more convinced that while City and PSG's state backing is unhealthy for football, the money of United/Real/Barca etc. Is unhealthy for the sport too but the people running the game will never take money out of it deliberately.
 

Hulksmash

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Important month for Newcastle, if they win the court Case this month , the takeover will go trough.

The better Question will be , what does that mean for the PL, the Saudis aren't here to make money and won't accept anything less then trophies.
 

Dr. StrangeHate

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Important month for Newcastle, if they win the court Case this month , the takeover will go trough.

The better Question will be , what does that mean for the PL, the Saudis aren't here to make money and won't accept anything less then trophies.
Thinks of the Saudis as Abu Dhabi on steroids both in terms of human rights abuses and financial doping.
 
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