Chris_R

Whose chairman owns the fucking country. Why are people so blind to this being an issue? Do people just have their heads in the sand? There's not a chance on earth this goes through. Zero. The directors' test says anyone who might have an influence over the club has to be squeaky clean, and not "reasonably" thought to have done anything like, I dunno, be involved in piracy. Can you think of anyone who has connections to PIF who this might apply to? I've been saying this for weeks.

It's a positive paragraph to read, but just because FIFA isn't implying something at this point doesn't mean FIFA doesn't think it's happening. Those would be 2 very different statements.

This. Absolutely nothing in it. None of you fuckers would have gotten sacked for that no matter what your job is. What if you were press officer for the Simon Weisenthal Centre?

If it’s a fail, there’ll be an appeal, if that fails I would think potential legal action. It could go on a bit longer. Do you think they would definitely appeal. My worry is they'd try elsewhere. Where, it’s the PL they want into, biggest league in the world, global coverage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk It's only the biggest league in the world because it has the most money and the best players. But if both of those go elsewhere.....? No reason for that to change, PL is the richest and biggest for a reason. You're not suggesting that the Saudis buying a club in another League would be enough to even begin to dethrone the PL are you? I don't know the answer to that. But things are not beyond being able to be changed. It's only what, 25-30 years since Serie A was at least as big if not bigger than the PL. They certainly had all the biggest players. I remember watching Football Italia and being astonished that Italian spectators were being charged over £30 per ticket when I'd rock up at Newcastle and pay £3 on the door, admittedly as a 14-year old in the second division. They had the players, they had the spectators, the grounds, the money, the exposure. Then Sky came along and everyone came to the PL instead. I'm not for one second saying things will change, but things can change, we're not above being dethroned as the self-proclaimed biggest and best league in the world and the world's richest consortium buying a club in a different league and whilst it won't tip the scales entirely on its own, it can't be overlooked as something which may alter the balance of power between the different leagues at least a bit. The French league has already gone up in everyone's eyes because of what's happened with PSG. Anything can change over the course of 25-30 years, but with regard to the Saudis they aren't buying well into the future they're buying now. If they want a club in the biggest league then for the foreseeable future that means the PL. I get that. But if they can't have us, they can't have another team in this league so they either walk away from football altogether, or they try with someone in a different league.

If it’s a fail, there’ll be an appeal, if that fails I would think potential legal action. It could go on a bit longer. Do you think they would definitely appeal. My worry is they'd try elsewhere. Where, it’s the PL they want into, biggest league in the world, global coverage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk It's only the biggest league in the world because it has the most money and the best players. But if both of those go elsewhere.....? No reason for that to change, PL is the richest and biggest for a reason. You're not suggesting that the Saudis buying a club in another League would be enough to even begin to dethrone the PL are you? I don't know the answer to that. But things are not beyond being able to be changed. It's only what, 25-30 years since Serie A was at least as big if not bigger than the PL. They certainly had all the biggest players. I remember watching Football Italia and being astonished that Italian spectators were being charged over £30 per ticket when I'd rock up at Newcastle and pay £3 on the door, admittedly as a 14-year old in the second division. They had the players, they had the spectators, the grounds, the money, the exposure. Then Sky came along and everyone came to the PL instead. I'm not for one second saying things will change, but things can change, we're not above being dethroned as the self-proclaimed biggest and best league in the world and the world's richest consortium buying a club in a different league and whilst it won't tip the scales entirely on its own, it can't be overlooked as something which may alter the balance of power between the different leagues at least a bit. The French league has already gone up in everyone's eyes because of what's happened with PSG.

If it’s a fail, there’ll be an appeal, if that fails I would think potential legal action. It could go on a bit longer. Do you think they would definitely appeal. My worry is they'd try elsewhere. Where, it’s the PL they want into, biggest league in the world, global coverage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk It's only the biggest league in the world because it has the most money and the best players. But if both of those go elsewhere.....?

If it’s a fail, there’ll be an appeal, if that fails I would think potential legal action. It could go on a bit longer. Just a thought, but given that we doubt the PL would announce anything and that any announcement would come from PIF, how do we know we're not already into the appeal stage already? After all, given how long it has gone on....

hadn't realised Ashley had killed a man or ran an illegal streaming service. Neither have the PIF directors, the Reubens, or Staveley. Although Amanada is up in court so count vouch 100% for her, but I don't think she has. PIF directors have absolutely killed thousands of people So have our government. Willfully, in just the last 4 months. Difference is, our government have killed tens of thousands of completely innocent people just to save their mates in the city done money. The Saudis probably didn't deserve to die, but unlike those killed by Boris, at least the people killed in Saudi had probably done something they shouldn't have done. And there were way fewer of them over a much longer period.

That's more of an issue, true. Always reliable for the negative. I'm not actually a negative person, this is just a self-defense mechanism - Though I do think the points I'm making are strong, I just prefer to look on the bad side because history tells me it will be a bad outcome supporting Newcastle. If I expect the worst, I cannot be gutted when it happens. Plus the highs are higher, if this does go through I'll be elated, but those saying they expect it to go through will just be relieved. It's a win-win, emotionally. Also expecting it to fail stops me getting too OTT with other fans. I've seen some Newcastle fans baiting others about what the our future could hold - they could end up with egg on their faces and having to eat humble pie. My stance, to everyone, since the very start has been the same so I'm also insulated from ridicule if it collapses.

If money talked that loudly, they wouldn't be so determined to no-deal BREXIT the country. In fact they wouldn't have got behind BREXIT at all. Given that this'll cost the country tens of billions, whilst I'm sure they'd prefer the Saudi investment I doubt our rich, London-centric Tory government will lose *that* much sleep over a provincial northern town losing a few million in investment.

Well we'll see. I'm not going to go round in circles, I expect this to fall through for the reasons I've given. Time will tell. I'll be over the moon to be wrong.

Why does this even matter? The law doesn't need to get involved at all. The directors' test just says that the PL need to believe that anyone who will have influence over the future of the club (Not even as a named director, ie Bin Salman) may have done something dodgy like piracy. Nothing in the directors' test requires anything to have been proven in a court of law, in fact it explicitly states that it does NOT have to be proven in a court of law - Just in the PL's reasonable opinion, iirc. There's no requirement for there to be a legal link between the companies either, as they can just do all of this on Bin Salman as an individual. If they "reasonably think" that A) he's behind the piracy, and that B) he'll have significant influence over the club then they can squash this. A) we all suspect strongly if we're honest, which is - by the wording of the PL test itself - enough. B) is 100% going to be the case, I don't think anyone at all would be able to dispute this with any credibility.

I don't doubt that it's a separate company. It's just abundantly obvious that there's incredibly close links between the 2. And that because of that it may be legally independent, but it's not, in the other meaning of the word, actually independent. Bin Salman's the chairman, ffs. Clearly PIF didn't create BeOUTQ, but I don't think that's being even suggested. But they're owned by a man who might have, which is the issue. And it is an issue, because if it wasn't then this deal would have been done by now. All the "They can't block this" brigade have got their heads in the sand, shooting off such certainties when clearly the PL and their lawyers are somewhat less certain, as they are still trying to decide which way to go on it.

So if they’re independent the PL can’t use the report to block the deal. Yeah, I'm sure the PL will just take their word for it. If it can be shown legally that the are independent then they’ll have little choice, that’s why I fear this will head to the UK courts. You think it can be shown legally that the sovereign wealth fund of the country, whose chairman is the de facto ruler of the country, is independent from the ruler of the country? Good luck with that.

So if they’re independent the PL can’t use the report to block the deal. Yeah, I'm sure the PL will just take their word for it.

So I guess now we know the timeframe for getting an answer on this test?

Broadcasting partners want action on the piracy stuff, they have to take it serious otherwise it could cause broadcasters in the future to not bid or offer less. Yeah it's this. But "action" could take many forms. Blocking the takeover is one form of action, but getting the piracy actually stopped is another which means you've got to approve the takeover, as otherwise there's no incentive for SA to do what you ask. So I guess it depends what Qatar REALLY want. Do they want the piracy stopped, or do they want the takeover stopped? If it's the former, they may need to accept the takeover going through. If it's the latter, well fuck them.

Yeah, if she wins this she might be able to afford us herself when the Saudis fail the director's test.

If it can be watched then someone somewhere is wanking to it. Sorry, I wasn't even aware my camera was on.

I can't wish them anything but bad things, because of how they've acted towards us when we've had bad times. What goes around comes around. Enjoy Burton, again.

Shit player but cost nowt. Don't really know anything about him as a person but seems to like the area and has embraced living here - Though us having paid him more than every other club he's been at combined about 10x over probably helps him like it here. Off you go, I've no bad feelings towards him but don't let the door bang you on the arse on the way out.

And have a beer. This saga has almost turned me into an alcoholic. I've replaced my cans about 20 times now. The other thing which annoys me is the people who post in such absolutes about their own opinion: "There's no way this can be rejected based on the WTO report", that kind of thing, it's just such utter bilge, talking like this when they've got no idea at all what the PL can and cannot do. Same with people who say it'll not pass. This is absolutely up in the air right now. Both outcomes are quite definitely possible and have been since day 1, that's the whole point of having a test. I really hope these same overconfident people haven't been going round lording it over all their mates and work colleagues who support other teams, because they could look incredibly stupid soon. My personal expectation is the collapse of the deal, but that's just because we're not allowed anything nice. That's our lot in life. I certainly would never profess to say I know that with utter certainty based on the PL's approval process or the WTO report though.

- Someone supports your opinion: "Great post mate, really well put, it's 100% exactly like that" - Someone says something against your opinion: "Dunno why anyone listens to you, just a WUM, you haven't got a clue what you're talking about" Given that there's probably less than 10 people in the whole world who know what's actually going on, and none of them post here, the number of people who treat others' opinions with such certainty is staggering. Literally anything anyone posts on here is just an opinion. Nobody has a fucking clue. It's frustrating, but we all need to chill out.

I'm maintaining my stance of "Not a fucking hope in hell this goes through". We don't get nice things. This'll collapse and be replaced by someone with no money like Henry Mauriss. That'll get waved through in about 2 weeks and everyone in the press will fall over themselves to tell us how lucky we are, that it's for the best we didn't get the Saudis and how we should be delighted to have got rid of Ashley for this guy. Then he'll saddle the club with crippling debt, replace the SD adverts with ones for his 2p streaming companies and we'll tank it down the leagues like Blackburn under Venkys. Then everyone will tell us that we should have kept Ashley and "we told you to be careful what you wished for - See, Ashley wasn't that bad after all and you hounded him out!". The script's written. We've just got to watch it all play out now.

Yeah, so unjust to not get into the playoffs when you finish outside the playoff positions. I mean I guess they've had a small outside chance taken away from them due to a global catastrophe, but that's about the most you can say. It's certainly not "unjust".