A Saudi consortium led by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia has bought the English club Newcastle United. The operation has come about successfully after 18 months of disputes, as 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 competition’s rights. This has caused the operation to have several conditions, among which appears the veto the Saudi royal family.
After the purchase, Newcastle have become the richest club in the world or, at least, they have the owners with more wealth, since the fund has eleven times more capital than Sheikh Mansour, the owner of the club until now richest, Manchester City. Specific, the fund has 320,000 million euros. As the club has already announced, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, director of the fund, will be the executive president of the club.
This operation completely changes the ownership of Newcastle. The purchase, for a value of 300 million pounds (354 million euros), ends the 14-year tenure of British billionaire businessman Mike Ashley, and will give the Saudi consortium 80% ownership, with an additional 10% to property developers Simon and David Reuben, and another 10% to PCP Capital Partners, from 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 the years and we are excited to work together with them. ”
Amnesty International has already warned Newcastle after the operation
The Arab capital has been entering the beautiful sport with great force for a decade. However, the poor record of Saudi Arabia regarding the human rights of its citizens leads institutions to believe that this interest in this sport, which attracts spectators from all over the globe, it is still an image wash movement.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has urged the Premier League prioritize human rights issues against the inflow of large capital from these types of owners. “Since this deal was first discussed, we have said it represented a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to launder its atrocious human rights record with the glamor of top-notch football,” said Sacha Deshmukh, executive director of the Organization in the United Kingdom, as stated CNBC.
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