‘Unimaginable’ - Key figure on latest Newcastle United takeover claim

Nick De Marco KC has claimed the Premier League will not re-examine the PIF-led takeover at Newcastle United - 17 months after helping the deal belatedly receive the green light.

The protracted takeover bid finally received the all-clear in October 2021 after the Magpies prospective owners gave ‘legally binding assurances’ the Saudi state would have no influence over events at St James Park.

Those assurances have come under heavy analysis once again over the last fortnight after United chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan was described as ‘a sitting minister of the Saudi government’ in a document submitted to a United States court as part of a dispute between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-ran LIV Golf.

That has led to fresh calls for the takeover agreement to be re-examined, with Amnesty International claiming: “It’s surely unimaginable that the Premier League won’t re-examine the assurances made about the non-involvement of the Saudi authorities in the Newcastle deal, and the sooner this is announced the better.”

However, De Marco believes the Premier League with not open up another investigation regarding the takeover because there has been no suggestion ‘the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has now changed its mind and is somehow exercising control over Newcastle’.

He told a football governance panel at law firm Mishcon de Reya this week: “No, I don’t think the Premier League will look into this because I don’t think they need to. For that reason nothing that has happened in the LIV case, it seems to me, changes any of that. There has been no suggestion that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has now changed its mind and is somehow exercising control over Newcastle, so I don’t believe this will lead to any change.”

Explaining more about the settlement that was reached with the Premier League, De Marco said: “The dispute was whether if PIF took over Newcastle the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would fall into the definition of control under Premier League rules.

“That definition includes the ability to control the club. That’s what the dispute was, and the dispute was never determined because it was settled. The Premier League published a statement summarising the settlement on their website. And the statement said the Premier League had received legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle.

“The lawyers in the room will see the difference between the dispute – i.e. do you fall into the definition of ability to control, and the league accepting assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control.”