Premier League clubs urged to combine and block £300 million Newcastle United takeover

The Premier League and all the clubs have been urged to block the much-talked-about takeover of Newcastle United by its overseas TV partner beIN Sports. Newcastle United are on the verge of a £300m-plus takeover by Saudi-backed consortium PCP Capitals, involving Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Magpies could be handed over to the consortium, involving financier Amanda Staveley, in the next couple of weeks given the Premier Leagues’ Owners and Directors’ Test is completed. However, Qatar-based broadcaster beIN Sports has said that Saudi Arabia should be held accountable for its involvement in a pirate TV network, which broadcasts Premier League matches illegally.

The network, named beoutQ, first began live-streaming sporting events, illegally, in the year 2017. The Premier League has been among a number of organisations and sporting bodies who have asked Arabsat to stop providing a channel for a pirate network.

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In July 2019, the Premier League said that it had spoken to nine law firms in Saudi Arabia, who simply refused to pursue a copyright complaint against beoutQ.

BeIN Sports are Premier League’s biggest overseas broadcast partner with their deal costing £500million for three years

Yousef al-Obaidly, the chief executive of beIN, has written to all 20 Premier League while petitioning the governing bodies’ chief executive, Richard Masters.

“The danger of allowing the acquisition of a controlling or material interest (whether acquired directly or indirectly) in a major Premier League club by what is effectively the Saudi Arabian government cannot be ignored given the country's past and continuing illegal actions and their direct impact upon the commercial interests of the Premier League, its member clubs, its broadcast partners and football in general.

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“As a longstanding partner and huge investor in the Premier League, we urge you to consider carefully all the implications of doing so.”

He adds: “The legacy of the illegal service will continue to impact you going forward.

“When the Premier League season re-commences in the coming months, all of the league’s broadcasters’ content will continue to be readily and illegally available via the IPTV streaming functionality on the beoutQ set-top-boxes which were sold in significant quantities in Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region.

“Furthermore – given the crippling economic effect that coronavirus is having on the sports industry – this is all happening at a time when football clubs need to protect their broadcast revenue the most.”

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been under political dispute since 2017.