Two updates from PIF HQ, Newcastle United owners making major moves
Two updates. ????
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) took over Newcastle United in contentious circumstances, and the controversy has not abated in the months and years since.
PIF finally got regulatory approval for a £305m deal to buy Newcastle from Mike Ashley in October 2021 after giving the Premier League legal assurances that the Saudi state would not control the club.
The protracted takeover saga also exposed a rift between Saudi Arabia and the Qatar-funded broadcaster BeIN Sports, whose Premier League coverage at the time was pirated on an industrial scale in Saudi.
Since then, PIF and Newcastle have taken more of a measured approach to matters of football governance in the Premier League.
Unlike Chelsea and Aston Villa, the club are not believed to have put their head above the parapet to side with Man City in their two ongoing legal battles with the Premier League.
However, the same cannot be said of PIF’s approach to football on a global scale.
The sovereign wealth funds have invested billions of petrodollars in the sport, both in the Saudi Pro League and beyond.
There are suggestions that PIF could acquire a European club to sit alongside Newcastle in a multi-club model, but their biggest ambitions in football are located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia itself.
And the latest developments in the Gulf state show that PIF are by no means scaling back their ambitions in football.
PIF given World Cup pass and could provide £1bn boost to FIFA
It has long been all but a formality that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, following in the footsteps of Qatar in 2022.
They are running unopposed to stage the tournament, but a vote was due to take place on the matter at FIFA’s annual congress anyway.
It was thought that several member nations could submit protest votes, however.
But as reported by The Times, FIFA has now engineered a mechanism to make this all but impossible by combining the vote on the 2034 World Cup with the vote on the 2030 edition due to be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
In addition, the report suggests that Saudi Arabia could come to FIFA’s aid in their struggle to find a broadcaster for their revamped Club World Cup next year.
FIFA were seeking a £2bn TV deal for the 32-team tournament in the United States, but the only offer on the table came from Apple, who submitted a £750m bid.
With clubs to whom massive prize money has been promised to satisfy – including Chelsea and Man City – FIFA need a big broadcast deal, and it is said the Saudi option could be a get-out-of-jail card.
PIF’s St James’ Park plans
It has emerged this week that PIF could spend up to £2bn on a completely new stadium for Newcastle, or closer to £1bn on a revamp and expansion of St James’ Park.
In the stadiums that PIF are building for the 2034 World Cup, Newcastle fans can get some idea of the scale and ambition that the owners will doubtless put into the project.
This would be transformative for the club on several levels, but particularly in terms of their ability to match PIF’s ambitions on the pitch while also complying with PSR.
St James’ Park currently generates about £38m per year in matchday income, but a new stadium could potentially double that figure as well as acting as a magnate for new sponsors.
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