JAKARTA - Newcastle United has officially been bought by a Saudi Arabian consortium, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the English Premier League club said in a statement late on Thursday.
"Following the completion of the Premier League Owners and Directors Test, the club has been sold to a consortium with immediate effect," the Premier League said on their official website.
The consortium itself belongs to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman. After failing in 2020, PIF managed to take over ownership of Newcastle.
An investment group led by the Public Investment Fund, and also comprising PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media, has completed the acquisition of 100% of Newcastle United Limited and Newcastle United Football Club Limited from St. James Holdings Limited.⚫️⚪️
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) October 7, 2021
PIF had previously announced that it offered £305 million to buy the north-eastern club from British businessman Mike Ashley on 9 April 2020.
However, the deal fell through in July 2020 amid scrutiny from the English Premier League, which has come under pressure to stop selling Newcastle over concerns over alleged piracy of broadcasts in Saudi Arabia.
"The Premier League, Newcastle United and St James Holdings Limited have today resolved a dispute over the takeover of the club by a consortium of PIF, PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media," the Premier League added.
"The legal dispute relates to which entity will own and/or have the ability to control the club after the takeover."
"The Premier League has now received a legally binding guarantee that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United Football Club."
The dispute involves Qatar's beIN Sports, the broadcast rights holder of the English Premier League in the Middle East, which has been banned from operating in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia lifted the ban on Wednesday to speed up the deal.
After being officially acquired by Saudi Arabia, Newcastle officially became the richest club in England. Launching the Daily Mail, PIF has a wealth of up to 320 billion pounds (about Rp. 6.1 trillion).
This amount is 13 times more than the wealth of the owner of Manchester City, Sheikh Mansour.
The following is a list of the wealth of 10 English Premier League club owners:1. Newcastle Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PiF) £320 billion
2. Man City Sheikh Mansour £23.3 billion
3. Chelsea Roman Abramovich £9.6 billion
4. Arsenal Stan Kroenke £6.8 billion
5. Wolves Guo Guangchang £5.2 billion
6. Aston Villa Nassef Sawiris £5 billion
7. Leicester Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha £4.6 billion
8. Tottenham Joe Lewis £3.9 billion
9. Manchester United The Glazer Family £3.6 billion
10. Southampton Gao Jisheng £3.1 billion
Top 10 richest football club owners in the world:1. Newcastle United - Saudi Arabia PIF - 320 billion pounds
2. PSG - Qatar Investment Authority - 220 billion pounds
3. Manchester City - Sheikh Mansour - 21 billion pounds
4. RB leipzig and RB Salzburg - Dietrich Mateschitz - 15.7 billion pounds
5. Juventus - Andrea Agnelli - 14 billion pounds
6. Chelsea - Roman Abramovich - 10.5 billion pounds
7. LA Galaxy - Philip Anschutz - £8.1 billion
8. Arsenal - Stan Kroenke - £6.8 billion
9. Inter Milan - Zhang Jindong - 6.2 billion pounds
10. Wolverhampton Wanderers - Guo Guangchang - £5.2 billion
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