‘BAN GRIZZLY BIN BUYOUT’
THE Premier League will be ‘humiliating’ itself if it allows ‘grizzly’ Saudi ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman to buy Newcastle United, according to an MP.
Parliamentarians yesterday quizzed league chief executive Richard Masters (above) about the controversial £300million Saudifunded deal to buy out Mike Ashley.
John Nicolson, of the SNP, ripped into the proposed takeover, saying the Saudis were also “up to their armpits” in the piracy of top-flight TV games.
The state-owned Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, chaired by Bin Salman (right), want to take an 80 per cent stake in the Tyneside club, with broker Amanda Staveley and London property tycoons the Reuben brothers each taking 10 per cent.
And in a fierce series of questions, Nicolson told the Culture and Sport Committee: “You could find Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman passing the fit and proper test and taking over a club. That would be humiliating for you, surely?
“The grizzly Mohammed bin Salman who is implicated in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, where Mr Khashoggi was lured into a Saudi embassy, murdered and chopped up into little pieces. I can’t imagine a situation where someone who is implicated in murder is allowed to take over an English club.”
Masters and the Premier League board have spent 13 weeks considering whether to allow the Toon takeover – amid claims of broadcasting piracy and human rights abuses. He said the Saudis have to respond positively to the piracy issue .
Premier League lawyers have been in dispute with the Saudis for three years. Their efforts to clamp down on the illegal broadcast of games were blocked nine times and the issue has been probed by the World Trade Organisation.
Masters said: “Our commitment to anti-piracy is well known. We want Saudi Arabia to respond positively to the situation and allow sports rights holders to protect their rights.
“Our owners and directors test allows us to disqualify owners on a raft of issues. We think it is robust.
“If clubs can find the right owners for their clubs they will be allowed through, and if they are not the right people they won’t.”