The wealth of Newcastle United’s owner knows no bounds as the Magpies join Manchester City and Paris-Saint Germain as clubs owned by Middle Eastern royalty.
Governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, is leading the new ownership of the club following the takeover on Thursday.
However, it is the considerable financial backing of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, that will instantly make Newcastle one of the world’s richest clubs.
Meeting Mike Ashley’s £305million asking price to buy the club will be like pocket change to a group whose net worth is estimated to be a staggering £320billion.
The scale of how wealthy they are is epitomised by the fact that the Crown Prince, known as MBS, spent $450million on Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) painting back in 2019.
The artwork, dubbed the ‘male Mona Lisa’, became the most expensive painting of all time as a result of that sale and its value works out more costly than the football club he is close to purchasing, though the painting ending up being a fake, according to Forbes.
That kind of wealth will, understandably, excite Magpies supporters who have been used to signing cut-price players during Ashley’s reign.
Although, the new owners will not be able to start the heavy spending on players immediately due to the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.
These are the regulations that have limited Everton’s owner from spending as excessively as he has wanted to over the last year or so.
Newcastle will still be allowed to invest in new players but the rules in place mean that they cannot spend hundreds of millions of pounds in one transfer window.
This may mean that a lot of the funding in the short term will be invested into the infrastructure of the club and the city, which will be welcomed by supporters in the North East.
During Ashley’s ownership, upgrades to stadia and training grounds from Premier League rivals have seen both St James’ Park and Darsley Park fall behind the necessary standard expected in the top flight.
For many fans, enhancements to both facilities would be the perfect place for the new owners to start the club’s rebuild.
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