Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said that the government will not intervene in Saudi Arabia’s takeover of Newcastle United.
Owner Mike Ashley is on the verge of selling Newcastle to a consortium led by Amanda Staveley for £300m, which would see the Saudi sovereign wealth fund – chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – take an 80 per cent stake in the club.
The takeover is expected to be completed and formally announced by 1 May, providing its new ownership pass the Premier League’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test, designed to ensure parties “meet standards greater than that required under law so as to protect the reputation and image of the game”.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International has claimed that the Premier League ”risks becoming a patsy” if it does not give serious consideration to the abuses that have taken place in the country.
Asked if the government would attempt to block the club’s purchase by the Scottish National Party’s John Nicolson MP, due to its “record of kidnapping, torture and other human rights violations”, Dowden said: “This is a matter for the Premier League to carry out the Fit and Proper Persons’ Test and I don’t intend to vary the approach that we would take, which is that it is for the Premier League to carry out that assessment.”
Pressed further by Nicolson, who asked if there was nothing the government could to do prevent the club passing into Bin Salman’s “gruesome hands”, Dowden added: “I think it’s a matter for them to carry out. It’s a matter for them and I’m content they should carry out that test.”
Staveley first attempted to buy Newcastle United in 2017, only for the prospective deal to collapse early in 2018 amid reports she had failed to meet Ashley’s £350m asking price. However, she re-entered into negotiations earlier this year having secured the backing of the sovereign wealth fund.
