The potential takeover of Newcastle collapsed after a Saudi Arabian-backed consortium rejected the Premier League’s offer of arbitration to determine who would own the club.
The group ended its £300m bid to buy the club off Mike Ashley in June. The deal was still being scrutinised under the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has now commented on the deal for the first time publicly.
In a letter to Newcastle upon Tyne Central MP Chi Onwurah, Masters said in June the Premier League board made a “clear determination as to which entities it believed would have control over the club” after the proposed purchase. The group included Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and Reuben Brothers.
Masters said the consortium disagreed with the Premier League’s conclusion that one entity would have control of the club. He said the league offered the group “the ability to have the matter determined by an independent arbitral tribunal” if it wanted to challenge that decision, but the consortium refused and then “PIF specifically” voluntarily withdrew from the process.
