£300m bid to take over Newcastle
LONDON: A British businesswoman has made a formal offer of around £300 million ($397 million, 338 million euros) for Premier League club Newcastle United, according to British media reports on Monday.
Several media outlets, including the BBC, said Amanda Staveley’s financial firm PCP Capital Partners had made a bid to Newcastle owner Mike Ashley.
Newcastle are yet to comment on the reports. PCP Capital Partners is believed to have been in talks with Newcastle about a potential takeover for several weeks. Sportswear magnate Ashley announced he wanted to sell the club in October after 10 years in charge, having paid £134.4 million to buy Newcastle in 2007.
‘ARSENAL CAN CHALLENGE MAN CITY ‘
LONDON: Arsenal can cut down the deficit to Premier League leaders Manchester City and challenge for the title this campaign, midfielder Granit Xhaka has said.
Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday leaves them sixth in the league on 22 points while City are 12 points ahead.
“I think in football everything is possible,” Xhaka told Sky Sports News. “Manchester City, at the moment, are on a very good run, they’re doing very well and others have dropped points — which they haven’t done — but it’s conceivable that they could drop points as well.”
“They might not continue as they have been. But our aim is just to focus on ourselves. We know we need to work and we’re convinced that we can compete at the top,” Xhaka added.
RUSSIA FEARS GAMES IN EAST WILL HURT STARS
MOSCOW: Loud calls grew in Russia on Tuesday to cancel tabletopping Lokomotiv Moscow’s upcoming away match in the country’s freezing Far East to protect the health of national squad players.
Lokomotiv are due to cross eight timezones to play last-place SKA Khabarovsk on Monday.
Parliament’s deputy speaker Igor Lebedev said forcing teams to travel to the other side of the country and play i n Artic weather was “a travesty”.
“The upcoming SKA Khabarovsk match against Lokomotiv will be a travesty for all of Russian football,” Lebedev told the Chempionat.com sports news site. “We have to remember that Lokomotiv and CSKA Moscow represent our country in European cups, and they comprise a large part of our national squad.”
FIFA BANS THREE OFFICIALS FOR LIFE
GENEVA: FIFA’S ethics committee on Tuesday slapped lifetime bans on three former world football executives who have all pleaded guilty to corruption charges.
Rafael Esquivel, a former head of the Venezuelan Football Association, Nicaragua’s Julio Rocha, a former FIFA development officer, and Richard Lai of Guam, who served on FIFA’S auditing body, have all been barred from any further involvement in the sport.