Yasir Al-Rumayyan reveals £700m Premier League snub and staggering Newcastle United value

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) were offered a 30 per cent stake in another Premier League club before becoming majority owners at Newcastle United.

That’s according to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chairman of PIF and the Magpies’ non-executive chairman who, during an interview in the Middle East, revealed his plans to increase the club’s value to a staggering £3.5billion.

It’s almost 12 months to the day since PIF (80% stakeholder), PCP Partners (10%) and RB Sports & (10%) Media acquired Newcastle from Mike Ashley in a deal worth £305million.

The takeover had previously stalled for 18 months until the Premier League received “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club.”

PIF first approached by another Premier League club

Newcastle have since benefited from a significant amount of investment - on and off the pitch - but before setting their sights on the Magpies, Al-Rumayyan has claimed another Premier League club wanted PIF on board.

That club, according to The Athletic, is Manchester United, who were allegedly among the clubs to lobby against the Newcastle takeover.

“Why did we choose the English Premier League? Because it is the greatest league that exists in the world,” Al Rumayyan told Radio Eight. “No other league competes with it. Any team from the 20 can beat the strongest team.

“Before Newcastle we had offers from Italy, France and also the UK. One UK club offered us 30 per cent for £700m and without any management.

“Amanda Staveley brought Newcastle to us and said ‘we like it so much, we would like it to be with you’. The Reuben family came and said ‘we would like to be partners in the investment’. So they have skin in the game.”

Using Chelsea as an example

Al-Rumayyan used Chelsea as an example as he answered ‘Why Newcastle?’. It was there the 52-year-old revealed the desire to grow the Magpies’ value by “10 times the money”.

He said: “We bought the team for £350m, compared to 30 per cent of the unnamed club) which is £700m. Then you have Chelsea who sold for £3.5bn.

“So my aim now is to make Newcastle go from £350m to £3.5bn, that’s 10 times the money. If we had bought Chelsea, for example, how much would it bring us in profit?

“Newcastle United is the only club present in one city, meaning there is no bigger club than Newcastle, “There are one million in the area and they are all present.

“We have 52,000 seats in the stadium and tickets are always sold out.”

Al-Rumayyan flew in from Saudi Arabia to watch Newcastle’s thrilling 3-3 draw with Premier League champions Manchester City in August.