Newcastle is currently the football club with the highest financial resources. Not only that: thanks to the rules in force in the Premier about budgets and the solid economic position inherited from former President Mike Ashley, the club could spend up to 250 million over the next three years to strengthen itself. Newcastle has become the richest football club in the world in just a few hours, thanks to the financial assets that its new owner possesses and that it could use to revive the English club, now relegated to the slums of the Premier League standings.
Saudi Arabia enters football and does it like an earthquake. After the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, now the European football has a new Middle Eastern scrooge. Richer than the presidents of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, Mohammad bin Salman makes Magpies supporters dream. After a long and interminable negotiation with Mike Ashley, number one of the club for 14 years and often criticized in recent seasons due to a season that is not too constant when compared to the ambitions and tradition of the fans, Newcastle United has been bought by the Public Investment Fund (PIF): PIF, PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media are officially the new owners of the Magpies. The white black fans, having heard the news, celebrated by dressing up as sheikhs and throwing money in the air.
The Public Investment Fund is the sovereign investment fund of the Saudi kingdom, and reports directly to Mohammad bin Salman, the crown prince who ended up at the center of international news for his alleged involvement in the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. In the months and days his name had also emerged as a potential interested in buying Inter. As reported by the English website Goal.com, the fund has a net wealth of over 430 billion euros, or 13 times that of Sheikh Mansour, owner of Manchester City, and even 50 times richer than Nasser Al-Khelaifi, patron of the PSG.
Mohammad Bin Salman Al Sa’ud, 36, is a member of the Al Sa’ud royal family, son of current Saudi King Salman and crown prince, as well as deputy prime minister and defense minister of Saudi Arabia.
He is the first in the line of succession to the throne of Saudi Arabia: his assets are estimated at around 18 billion dollars, which places him next to Sheikh Mansour, owner of Manchester City, as one of the richest owners of the Premier League.
The figures of the deal have not yet been officially disclosed: the last public offer dates back to April 2020 and was around 300 million pounds. According to British sources, it should be around 370 million euros.
Before formalizing the transfer of ownership, the Premier League has carried out an investigation into the next owners of Newcastle, to ascertain that the Saudi government does not directly control the club. In the past few hours, Amnesty International also spoke out about a possible change in human rights.
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