Still for sale a year after takeover work began
BUT NOW COMES THE COMPLEX PART!
MIKE Ashley would like to see somebody else take on the challenge of taking Newcastle United to the next level in time for pre-season 2021.
In fact, the club would have been in the hands of a new supremo months ago had the tycoon got his way this time last year.
For all the false dawns on Tyneside, takeover stories and speculation and Ashley’s own inconsistencies with what he wants to do with the much-maligned Magpies, his eyes are still very much on selling the club to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Amanda Staveley and the Reuben brothers.
And that has been the case since last April when he told his legal team to prepare the takeover work for the £340million sale to go through from his Miami holiday home at the start of lockdown.
As Ashley braces himself for a court battle with the Premier League he has told those close to him that the PIF deal is the only takeover in Toon as far as he’s concerned.
After all, it was almost signed, sealed and delivered before a row broke out over whose name would be above the door.
Sources at St James’ Park insist Ashley simply wants to sell up and move on from his Newcastle experience.
But now comes the complex part, the arbitration battle that decides whether the Premier League were right or not to have reservations over who they thought would be owning the club.
PIF and co stated clearly that they were independent of the Saudi state and that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, not Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of the country, would be running the show.
Ashley is still confident he can get a deal pushed through via arbitration, but when that will take place is up for debate.
Those close to the bidding side seem to think the arbitration result will not come through until this summer at the earliest and certainly not before the Premier League season is completed.
Then there some observers that believe that either Newcastle’s attempt to get Michael Beloff QC removed from the arbitration panel earlier this year will delay matters by months, or the Premier League, who have been met with plenty of opposition when it comes to agreeing to the sale of United, could drag the situation out as long as it takes.
Earlier this year QC Mark Pelling shone a light on what the arbitration dispute would entail, he said: “Concerned exclusively with the question whether the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would be a ‘director’ under the Premier League’s rules and not with the question (of) whether if Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was a ‘director’ it would be disqualified”.
“The text of the letter makes it abundantly clear that the sole issue that the Premier League had decided - and then only provisionally - was that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia satisfied the definitions so that it was to be regarded as a director.”
The judge added: “The only dispute that can or will be decided in the current arbitration is whether this conclusion is correct”.
Ashley’s own intentions have been made crystal clear via a statement in which he said: “NUFC (is) fighting tooth and nail, the fans and the region are being denied what they deserve.”
The Magpies also released a statement this year which read: “The Club is committed to the speedy and fair determination of its claim so that the proposed takeover can go ahead as soon as possible.”
It can’t happen quick enough for Newcastle fans, but just like the entire Ashley era, the sale has been full of complexities and uncertainties.