Amnesty tell Prem: Get tough

AMNESTY have demanded “proper human rights scrutiny” of club owners by the Premier League amid fresh controversy over Saudi Arabia’s attempt to buy Newcastle.

Saudi ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (above) personally demanded Prime Minister Boris Johnson help get his £305million buy-out approved.

But the deal stalled last summer over the owners’ and directors’ test and the Saudis withdrew, although Toon owner Mike Ashley is trying to get it revived.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen (below) said: “This whole tangled affair only underlines how there needs to be a proper overhaul of the Premier League’s Owners’ and Directors’ test to provide proper human rights scrutiny of who is trying to buy into the glamour and prestige of English football.”

Bin Salman is said to have told Johnson in June: “We expect the English Premier League to reconsider its wrong conclusion” and warned Anglo-Saudi relations would be damaged unless he got his way.

He is accused by the US government of being behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi among other abuses. Bin Salman chairs the Saudi state Public Investment Fund, which bid for Newcastle and owned the Gulfstream jets used to fly a 15-man murder squad to Turkey to kill Khashoggi.

Allen added: “The bid to buy Newcastle United was a blatant example of Saudi sportswashing, so it’s worrying the prime minister would accede in any way to pressure from the Crown Prince.

“Reports Mohammed bin Salman made threats about possible damage to UK-Saudi relations if the deal didn’t go ahead only illustrates this was always more than just a commercial transaction.”