The Premier League have agreed to meet with Amnesty International UK to discuss potential changes to the owners and directors test after Newcastle's recent takeover.
The Guardian claims that Premier League officials will meet with the Human Rights group after their criticism of the Magpies' takeover.
The PIF acquisition of Newcastle United has been branded "sportswashing" by the organisation and Amnesty International wrote a letter to Richard Masters calling for a meeting to address the current owners' and directors' test.
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Sacha Deshmukh, the CEO of Amnesty International UK, said: "We’re obviously pleased that the Premier League is willing to talk about these proposals as a starting point for what we hope will be a process that leads to considerable strengthening of the rules on football governance.
“The current rules concerning who owns and runs English football clubs are woefully inadequate, with no bar on ownership for those complicit in acts of torture, slavery, human trafficking or even war crimes.
“The Saudi buyout of Newcastle United always looked like an attempt to sportswash Saudi Arabia’s appalling human rights record with the glamour and prestige of the Premier League and top-flight football.
“We’re keen to discuss with Richard Masters our ideas for a human rights-compliant owners’ and directors’ test which can help weed out unsuitable owners complicit in human rights violations, as well as reducing sportswashing and generally improving governance within the game.”
The meeting could have further implications on future Premier League takeovers with the Human Rights group campaigning for changes to be made to the test.
The current tests cover a limited investigation into possible possible conflicts of interest and criminal convictions.
Last year, Amnesty called upon David Chivers QC of Erskine Chambers to come up with a revised test that would make the Premier League's current tests coincide with Fifa’s statutes, which commit the game’s governing body to “respecting all internationally recognised human rights and … to promote the protection of these rights”.
Chivers wrote: “A change to the Owners’ and Directors’ Test to incorporate a reference to human rights would not make the Premier League some sort of outlier.
"Rather, it would see the Premier League brought into line with modern expectations of corporate governance and responsibility.”
