Newcastle United will learn takeover fate in early January
Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley will learn whether the club's proposed takeover of the club will get the go-ahead in early January.
A deal to buy Newcastle - worth £300m - was agreed between Ashley and a group comprised of PCP Capital Partners, led by Amanda Staveley, David and Simon Reuben and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund - which was putting up the majority of the money.
The bid failed to go through as the Premier League disputed whether members of the Saudi Arabian ruling family would become club directors - and the delay saw them walkaway in the summer of 2020.
Ashley was then prompted to launch legal action against the Premier League on two fronts. The first was an arbitration hearing between the club and the league - which was delayed earlier this summer - and also a Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
The CAT began on Wednesday and it was during those proceedings that it was confirmed, via
Adam Lewis QC, who represents the Premier League, that the arbitration process would finally begin on January 3 and take 'little more than a week' to be heard - at which point it will be known if Newcastle will be sold or not.
This ties in with news that 90min was told earlier this month that Newcastle as a club were confident that the takeover would go through.
Indeed Lewis confirmed that the takeover would go through as long as it was proven that there was a significant degree of separation between the actual Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the PIF.
“If the arbitration decides KSA is not a director then the transaction can and will go ahead, with no question of the owners’ and directors’ test being applied to KSA,” he said.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) that will decide if the league breached anti-competition laws resulting in losses for Newcastle, and truth will have little bearing on the outcome of the arbitration process - but Ashley is determined to prove the league were in the wrong to deny the takeover.
During the CAT process Daniel Jowell QC, representing St. James’ Holdings owned by Ashley, claimed that the Premier League's initial decision to reject the takeover was in part due to the role of Qatar based beIN Sports, who accuse the Saudi government of broadcast piracy with their Premier League rights within their region.
"We say that this lobby [from beIN] and the pressure distorted the Premier League’s fair and objective application of the rules," said Jowell.
"At the time the Premier League was reaching its decision, beIN was in the midst of negotiations with the Premier League for another three years’ [overseas] rights deal. It was very publicly reported at the time that the beIN media group actively lobbied the Premier League against the takeover of Newcastle.”
Jowell insists that Newcastle are hopeful but would not go as far as to state the deal remains done and added: "If the Premier League came to its senses and reversed its decision, we hope [the buyers] might be prepared to go forward on similar terms."
Although the Premier League are in little doubt as Mr Lewis stated the deal was 'still on the table' and could go ahead in January.
"The Premier League hasn’t carried through its threat to stop the club from participating in the competition"
- Daniel Jowell QC
One last accusation came from Mr Jowell who accused the Premier League of threatening to kick Newcastle out of the Premier League.
“The Premier League hasn’t carried through its threat to stop the club from participating in the competition," he stated.
The three-man panel headed by Mr Justice Miles said a decision on the CAT would be reached after "going away and considering with care" the evidence put before the hearing but no timeframe on the verdict was given.