The Saudi-led consortium who tried to buy Newcastle United earlier this year were always going to struggle to meet the Premier League's demands.
That's the view of Mark Douglas who told the Everything is Black and White Podcast that he feels the Premier League never wanted the deal to actually go through.
Addressing our exclusive FOI story - in which the Department for International Trade confirmed correspondence between themselves and the interested takeover parties but refused to release it - Douglas said he felt it only went onto highlight that Newcastle were treated unfairly in this saga.
Listen to the full podcast here.
"I think that story," he told Andrew Musgrove, "it just highlights why I felt in the summer it was a little bit unfair - Newcastle were treated differently.
"Now, I don't think that it was handled as well as it should have been on the buying side from the start but it should have been allowed through my opinion.
"I always felt it was unfair. You know, I look at some of the other deals that have gone through since then.
"I can see the argument that the Premier League needed to have a clear line but if the PIF are actually providing written assurances from the court of Saudi Arabia, well what was the level of proof that the PL required?
"I don't think they could ever meet it, and I don't think they ever really wanted the deal to happen.
"I think they found reasons to keep looking at it and I'm not one for conspiracies, but I just felt that they were hostile to the deal from the off there were too many negative voices around it."
