GENEVA – The Premier League was urged on Thursday to review a legally binding promise by the owners of English football club Newcastle in 2021 that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund would be separate from the country’s government.
A US court document filed by lawyers for Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf in a case against the PGA Tour revealed this week that the public investment fund should be considered a “foreign state”.
The document appeared to contradict a legal assurance accepted by the Premier League when a The protracted Newcastle takeover was completed in October 2021 where PIF has a share of 80%.
At that time boss of the Premier League Richard Masters to the BBC In an interview, the Saudi state would not control Newcastle and if that proves wrong “we can remove the consortium as owners”.
Human rights group Amnesty International, which has campaigned against the takeover deal, said Thursday it should be reviewed.
“The Premier League will certainly need to review assurances about the Saudi authorities’ non-involvement in the Newcastle deal,” Peter Frankental, Amnesty’s economic director, said in a statement.
“It always aroused credulity to imagine that the Saudi state would not steer the takeover,” Frankental said, adding the deal had “the ultimate goal of using the club as a component in its broader sports-washing effort.”
The Premier League declined to comment on the issue on Thursday.
The £300m (US$358m) takeover was popular with most Newcastle fans. The club were promoted from the Premier League relegation zone 17 months ago to fight for a place in the Champions League this season. Like the Saudi national team, the team has worn a white and green kit in some matches.
In the US court case, LIV Golf lawyers argued that PIF and its governor, Newcastle Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, are “not ordinary third parties” and should be exempted from some standards at the investigative stage of the case.
“You are a sovereign instrument of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the filing said, adding that the discovery order was “an extraordinary violation of the sovereignty of a foreign state.”
PIF is headed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and six of the other eight board members listed on its website are government ministers. It says it has assets under its management valued at $620 billion last year.
At a football industry conference in London on Thursday, Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley described PIF as “effectively a pension fund”.
“You’re managing money for future generations,” Staveley said at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit during a panel discussion.
The panel did not consider the American court document.
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