Saudis offered United stake before Newcastle takeover

Newcastle United’s Saudi Arabian owners say they turned down the chance to buy a £700million, 30 per cent stake in another Premier League team, believed to be Manchester United.

Chairman Yasir Al-rumayyan has revealed that the country’s Public Investment Fund was offered the chance to invest in clubs across Europe, including the Premier League, Italy and France, before buying Newcastle for £350million.

While Al-rumayyan did not specify where the offer came from, the club in question is thought to be Manchester United, with the Glazer family willing to take the money from the PIF, but not give the Saudis any say in the running of the club. Unsurprisingly, those controlling Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is chaired by the country’s de facto ruler and new prime minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, did not go for it.

Instead, PIF launched a takeover bid for Newcastle in January 2020. The Premier League signed off on the deal 18 months later after the kingdom agreed to stop the piracy of international sporting events and paid compensation to Middle East rights holders bein Sports.

“When we looked at it, we looked at it from a financial perspective,” Al-rumayyan said on a podcast in Saudi Arabia. “By the way, it wasn’t the first offer we got regarding a football team. We looked in Italy, France and the UK as well.

“For example, in the UK, there was a team that approached us on the basis that we take 30 per cent of the ownership, and we don’t interfere at all in terms of managing the club, for £700million.”

Instead, PIF turned its attention to Newcastle. “We bought the whole team for £350million, instead of only having 30 per cent in another team for £700million. You can see Chelsea was sold for £3.5billion. So, my potential now is to go from £350million to at least £3.5billion.”