PIF power to be reduced

THE Premier League let the horse bolt when they allowed the nation state of Saudi Arabia to buy Newcastle United.

So it’s not surprising that they are now scrambling to curb the financial might of the state Public Investment Fund with new rules.

The PIF is worth £700billion. Their move into football has proved a useful source of cash for many clubs through transfer fees, not only Newcastle.

But the power they now wield – and the players they own – is now terrifying Newcastle’s Premier League rivals.

They are set to vote on rules which will stop loans from related-parties, clubs owned by the same company, to our top-flight teams in January. In reality it is a restriction on Newcastle signing players from the FOUR clubs the PIF own in Saudi – Al-hilal, Al-nassr, Al-ittihad and Al-ahli.

If Newcastle and the PIF wanted to be devious, those clubs could be used as a cheap back-door route to feeding Newcastle players if say, like now, they have an injury crisis.

Instead of paying £47m for Ruben Neves (above) as Al-hilal did in the summer, Newcastle can currently loan him for a fraction of the cost.

It’s allowed under current rules, but by January it is likely to be prevented after a vote by their rivals.

What would happen if a star playing for a PIF club mutually decided to cancel his contract and became a free agent. Then said star ended up at Newcastle.

The PIF Saudi club would take the financial hit, Newcastle would mop up a player for free! Multi-club ownership throws up these problems.

No wonder the Premier League want to tighten the rules.