Montey

Whilst I lean towards the theory that it will get sorted and the sale will be completed, I don't think the resolution will involve BeIn Sport being broadcast in Saudi Arabia. I think the Royal Family will want local control of the broadcast into Saudi homes so they can control what advertising materials and affiliated content comes along with the broadcast. Saudi Arabia is a very-conservative country that finds many more liberal principles to be highly offensive so they would likely be intolerant of any extra content that comes along with the BeIn broadcast. So I suspect they will pay for KSA Sport to have it's own broadcast license - possibly paying some compensation to BeIn, via the Premier League as part of the license fee, so Saudi Arabia doesn't directly send money to its enemy. BeIN we’re providing content in Saudi Arabia before without a problem. The problem is not to do with advertising or anything like that, it’s to do with politics. If Saudi Arabia really had that much of a problem with that sort of stuff, then they would have banned it long before they did because of the betting companies and financial companies which don’t adhere to Sharia law. Fair call.

Whilst I lean towards the theory that it will get sorted and the sale will be completed, I don't think the resolution will involve BeIn Sport being broadcast in Saudi Arabia. I think the Royal Family will want local control of the broadcast into Saudi homes so they can control what advertising materials and affiliated content comes along with the broadcast. Saudi Arabia is a very-conservative country that finds many more liberal principles to be highly offensive so they would likely be intolerant of any extra content that comes along with the BeIn broadcast. So I suspect they will pay for KSA Sport to have it's own broadcast license - possibly paying some compensation to BeIn, via the Premier League as part of the license fee, so Saudi Arabia doesn't directly send money to its enemy.

Yes, but that flight carried a disclosed (visible on FlightRadar24) medical flight call-sign and, if I recall correctly, that was an Air Saudia owned aircraft? This flight is presenting itself as a private flight (not disclosing it's call-sign). I do note, from FlightAware.com, that the aircraft was in and out of Germany on Sunday so there is a high probability it is now just returning passengers to Germany (https://flightaware.com/live/flight/HZA22 scroll down for recent flight log).

Gulfstream G450 departed from Riyadh https://www.flightradar24.com/GLF4/24aa8451 Current Altitude: 40,000ft Current Speed: 0.8Mach Speed, altitude, and heading suggests aircraft is at least destined to Europe. Registration: HZ-A22 (https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9211274) Owner: Alpha Star Aviation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Star_Aviation) "Alpha Star Aviation Services is a private charter airline based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, operating domestic and international scheduled and charter services. Its main base is King Khalid International Airport. In addition to its airline business, Alpha Star also provides air ambulance services."

Registration: M-OVIE Owner: INEOS/Hampshire Aviation Ltd (https://www.ineos.com/ Tail logo matches Ineos logo) https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/M-OVIE.html Where are you getting the registrations? That's a game changer. I start with FlightRadar24 (as does everyone else, because its user interface doesn't suck), but it doesn't show the registration. I then use flightaware.com's map to find the same aircraft, in the same position on the map as is on flightradar24.com, and select the aircraft on the map. flightaware.com then opens a new page for that flight and gives the aircraft's tail-number. I then use airport-data.com to find additional information about that tail-number (like owner, photographs, etc).

Registration: M-OVIE Owner: INEOS/Hampshire Aviation Ltd (https://www.ineos.com/ Tail logo matches Ineos logo) https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/M-OVIE.html

Landed in Farnborough. Interesting. There's a GLF6 that took off from Farnborough earlier that's possibly heading for SA. https://www.flightradar24.com/GLF6/24a8e3fc Also a GLEX that went from Geneva to Farnborough not long ago. That little jet is hauling arse too! Ground Speed: 530+kts (>600mph). Interesting tail image: Owner: Geniethree Limited https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/VP-CGN.html

G-MAOL is on the move. https://www.flightradar24.com/24a8ec71

Descending over Germany now. Landing: Koln Bonn

GLF4 departed Riyadh UTC22:15 https://www.flightradar24.com/GLF4/24a84a3b

Again heading straight for us. I recon it will land Munich. Looks like it's headed to Stuttgart.

I’m fairly sure BeIn let it be known that they would be seeking some sort of compensation if the deal goes through, possibly withholding future payments (if any) Richard Masters has probably been already assured that SA will take up the slack if this were to happen and would be acquiring the rights next time around. If BeIn had to let go of a hundred staff over the decline in revenue relating to BeoutQ, they might not be in a position to bid next time anyway. In Steve Wraith's most recent YouTube video, Neil Mitchell (@geordiedentist) suggested that their is possibly a negotiation underway to have BeIn pay a reduced EMEA region PL license fee and PIF pay a PL license fee covering Saudi televising of PL games. If this negotiation is underway it would require the PL to speak to BeIn and to convince them to agree.

Whilst I have thought there is limited value in the writing of letters to the PL, I do think there is some (limited) value in contacting MP's. NUFC supporters could contact their local MP and put to their MP their desire to see the takeover go through. They could also ask their MP to please make representations on their behalf (their constituents) to the PL and to the Government in support of the takeover. If the government was inclined to take any action it would be helpful to them to have some political coverage by saying they were representing voters who contacted them in support.

Just have to hope the Premier League is greedy enough to ignore it or find a loophole, more like. Personally I think it boils down to if PIF can be classed as a separate legal entity as per the opinion of that Football Lawyer article. I think it's actually is even more simple than that: If the Premier League doesn't want the takeover to happen they will find an excuse to block it; or If the Premier League does want the takeover to happen they will find an excuse to let it pass the O&D Test. Beyond this, I think there are a few variables to option #2 that may impact the timing, those being: Can the Premier League use this takeover as a way to extort some extra funding from the Saudis; Can the Premier League use this takeover process as a way to force the Saudis to do some things, whilst the Premier League has some leverage over them; and/or Does the Premier League feel it needs to spend a chunk of time "evaluating the purchase" to avoid some bad publicity? If the Premier League does intend to block it, the only reason to delay is to pretend that they gave it some serious consideration as an attempt to convince the supporters of Newcastle United that the process was not a fraud, and to try and derive enough legal protection so that the buying consortium doesn't sue them into oblivion.

Type: Learjet 60 Departed: Riyadh Altitude: 34,000ft Speed: 443kts Direction: North-West (307deg) https://www.flightradar24.com/LJ60/249f1221 Learjet 60 has a range of 4,454km (according to Wikipedia), which is not enough range to reach London or Newcastle.

He didn’t say that - he did say that there must have been some kind of problem for it to take so long, but because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean to say it won’t. He didn’t pretend to know anything more than us and I agreed when he said it has became so unbearable because of the false deadlines put on it by journalists and so called ITK’s. ... yeah, like a global pandemic, the full shutdown of all professional sport, and then the need to restart the nation's football leagues. Just one of the many contributors to the media shit-storm who know absolutely nothing, have no in-the-know contacts to exploit, and they just do wind-up pieces to try and remain relevant.

Those two GLF5 aircraft were moderately interesting to follow. Both aircraft paralleled each other into Germany, eventually landing at different but very close airports (Ramstein and Frankfurt).

Keegans number Landed at Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

There's a new private executive helicopter heading out of London in our direction - CASTLE07. Since I haven't seen it around before I shall refer to it as NewCASTLE07. Is it an omen? #CANS

This is all bang on, with one exception that I can see. The PL could refuse to approve or deny - they could effectively hold the O&D Test conclusion hostage subject to the Saudi's agreeing some unrelated concessions. For example, the PL could (theoretically) let it be known that the O&D Test is going to take months longer unless they see laws enacted within Saudi Arabia banning the pirating of football broadcasts. The PL is powerless to rule for or against the passing of the O&D Test for any reason other than those documented in the O&D Test criteria. To do otherwise will, as HTT says, land them in a legal case that they would lose. But, they could decide to take a very, very, very long time to complete the test and thereby make it impractical for the sale to proceed.

Yeah... that's moderately interesting.

Aye, this one: https://www.flightradar24.com/GLF5/2489d389 Gonna check it again in a while and see where it's going. You should keep an eye on this one too. https://www.flightradar24.com/GBHVV/2489c7aa

It's likely a Medevac aircraft - https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/hz-ms5b Photograph shows the words "Saudi Medevac" on the side of the aircraft. Doesn't mean it couldn't be used for what we'd like, but is more likely a medical flight.

You gotta respect the hustle. No doubt just negotiated a nice little pay rise at his current job based on the NUFC interest, while proceeding to charge NUFC a fee to find an alternative. FWIW I've seen other forums and subreddits receive a polite but firm e-mail from lawyers about users posting articles. A lot of these "interest" stories will be nothing more than player managers and various representatives attempting to link their client to potential mega-money at NUFC, just to get a pay rise out of their existing employer. They should almost universally be ignored.

I don't think there will be a comment in any scenario from the Premier League. They will advise the buyer and seller as to the success/failure of the O&D Test. It will then be up to the buyer/seller to then announce anything and/or launch legal proceedings (it may be that the first anyone would find out about a failure of the O&D Test is someone noticing civil proceedings being filed in one of the courts).