SAUDIS ASKED BORIS TO INTERVENE

SAUDI Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to intervene in the takeover of Newcastle United by telling the Premier League to ‘correct’ its decision to block the deal. In an extraordinary exchange revealed today by the Daily Mail, Bin Salman warned Britain’s leader on June 27 last year that Anglo-Saudi relations would be damaged unless the £300million buyout was approved. His message to Johnson read: ‘We expect the English Premier League to reconsider and correct its wrong conclusion.’ Johnson asked one of his senior aides to investigate the matter but the Saudis withdrew from the process at the end of July after the Premier League failed to approve them as the club’s new owners. Johnson backed calls later for the Premier League to reveal why the takeover had not been passed. The Crown Prince was enraged after the Premier League demanded to know whether the Saudi state — in effect, Bin Salman himself — would be the owners of Newcastle. The Premier League had concerns over alleged statebacked broadcast piracy in the country, but the buying consortium insisted that the Public Investment Fund leading the deal was separate from the state. The PIF, along with financier Amanda Staveley and the Reuben brothers, agreed a deal with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley for the sale of the club exactly a year ago. That agreement remains in place and Ashley is awaiting an arbitration hearing against the Premier League in a bid to have the takeover approved. A source, referring to Ashley (left), said last night: ‘In Mike’s eyes the club is sold. He feels Newcastle fans won the lottery but were denied a payout by the Premier League. ‘He wants to know why that happened and is determined for the deal to be signed off.’ Interestingly, a redundancy letter sent to staff at Newcastle’s club store this week referenced the ‘anticipated transfer of ownership of the club’ and ‘new owners of Newcastle Football Club’. There is optimism that the deal will be revived but that is subject to the outcome of the arbitration hearing, which is yet to begin.