Fresh doubts over Newcastle takeover
NEWCASTLE UNITED’S long, drawn out takeover has taken another twist with the Premier League understood to want further answers from the Public Investment Fund over TV piracy issues in Saudi Arabia.
The Public Investment Fund, which is the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, agreed to buy 80 per cent of the club from Mike Ashley two months ago and approval was expected to be a formality within a few weeks. The deal is led by Amanda Staveley, whose firm PCP will take a 10 per cent stake, with property developers Simon and David Reuben taking the remaining 10 per cent. It is understood that the investor group has already addressed an initial raft of questions about beoutQ, a pirate satellite TV station which operates in Saudi Arabia, which has undermined the market for Premier League TV rights by illegally streaming the feed of the legitimate broadcaster for the region, Qatari firm beIN SPORTS.
The Premier League declined to comment on the confidential process. It is understood the investor group has answered all the questions put forward to it. But further inquiries are expected to be made this week.
The potential delay comes just a few days before the World Trade Organisation is expected to deliver a further blow to the deal with a judgement on the longstanding dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia over beoutQ TV piracy. The judgement on Tuesday will rule on whether the Saudi state is behind beoutQ. Saudi Arabia denies the accusation, which has been made at the WTO by Qatar.
BeoutQ was initially broadcast from the Arabsat satellite, which is 36 per cent owned by the Saudi state. After repeated representations, including form the British government, the channel was taken off the satellite last year. However, there are also beoutQ set-top boxes, which are now available throughout the region and in the UK, which allow streaming of Sky, BT, the BBC and other subscription channels illegally.
BeIN SPORTS was initially blocked from broadcasting in Saudi Arabia after the nation cut off diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar in 2017 in a row over alleged terrorism. BeoutQ sprung up in the region shortly after. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, is also the chairman of the Public Investment Fund.
All of the Premier League major broadcast partners, such as Sky and BT, have this year lobbied the US government to keep Saudi Arabia on their watch-list for piracy and the existence of the channel has completely devalued the next round of Premier League TV rights for the Middle East region, which were worth £500million over three years in 2018. However, the issue also affects UK broadcasters Sky and BT, who paid £4.55billion for the domestic Premier League TV rights.
Hatice Cengiz, the widow of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who was murdered by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, has written to the Premier League to oppose the deal. An investigation by the UN concluded that Khashoggi’s death ‘constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible’. The Saudi state has dismissed the report as based on misinformation.
There have also been concerns expressed over a conflict of interest in owning Newcastle given that Sheffield United is owned by the Crown Prince’s cousin, Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad.