Wandy

So how do they get out of this? Do nothing? Ain't going to work now, they have to make a decision and take a side. I'm not sure they do. It's just going to be ignored as they have down for 4 month until it goes away. That isn't happening now. It was, but the buyers blew them out of the water and exposed that tactic. Pretty much every outside body has said they need to explain themselves or come up with a decision, including the government. They’re not accountable to the government though. You’re still clutching at straws here. This. It doesn't matter who says what. If and when they do actually say something it'll be them telling us it's a confidential process, they stand by it and it wasn't succesful/buyers walked away. They don't have to do anything, they don't have to be transparent about their process regardless who tells them to. If they don't want to let them in, it's unfortunately up to them. I don’t know why so many of our fans choose not to believe these clear and obvious facts. It’s like this is the first time some have ever seen corruption and vested interests. The PL doesn’t have very many obligations at all. How do you know that they have no obligation to make a decision one way or the other? Show us the proof of this.

So how do they get out of this? Do nothing? Ain't going to work now, they have to make a decision and take a side. I'm not sure they do. It's just going to be ignored as they have down for 4 month until it goes away. That isn't happening now. It was, but the buyers blew them out of the water and exposed that tactic. Pretty much every outside body has said they need to explain themselves or come up with a decision, including the government. They’re not accountable to the government though. You’re still clutching at straws here. This. It doesn't matter who says what. If and when they do actually say something it'll be them telling us it's a confidential process, they stand by it and it wasn't succesful/buyers walked away. They don't have to do anything, they don't have to be transparent about their process regardless who tells them to. If they don't want to let them in, it's unfortunately up to them. Where is your proof that they would be able to do this?

I like Barry a lot but know that he, like many other Guardianers, have been very condescending towards Newcastle fans on this topic. What's he said now? The bloke is a complete moron man, how can you have such a reductive outlook on sporting competition when your profession is literally sports journalism? You can essentially distill his argument to - if you're not at the bottom of the football pyramid, you've got nothing to moan about Heaven forbid fans actually have ambitions for their team to be successful His Mackem blinkers heavily inform his contrarian rhetoric and it's so painfully obvious. He'll still be pleading for sympathy for them without the esteemed logic that he applied to us. Guardian journalists love us, don't they... One good thing about being where we now are in all of this farce is that we can stop worrying about what newspapers, journailsts, BEin and gobshites like Keys say on twitter and in their columns as it will have no effect, one way or another. This is all about if/when the rule of law can resolve the issue. Opinions count for fuck all now.

The whole thing depends on whether there is a strong legal case that can be brought against the PL if they reject it or, just as importantly, refuse to make a decision one way or the other. All of the pressure from the fans and MPs will have no effect if there is nothing that can be done legally to force it through. I'm allowing myself one last moment of optimism and going with the idea that the buyers and seller now have the PL in checkmate whereby, one way or the other, they know this is going through and are just giving the PL the opportunity to do it without the acrimony of a high profile court case. The buyers dont want to go down the legal route either as that could take throughout the whole of next season to resolve and who knows how the campaign is going to go. They could win the case but then find they have been given the green light to buy a club headed for the Championship. Whipping up the fans and MPs has been a way of warning the PL that ultimately this is a war that they are going to lose and its up the PL to decide how much damage they are going to sustain.

I was feeling positive that this could be resolved until I read this article. Quite sobering. http://www.true-faith.co.uk/takeover-who-is-to-blame/

This needs to get ugly now, proper ugly. Ashley and the buyers need to take the gloves off and start fighting dirty.

Joined. Think it's highly likely to be the very last piece of anything financially related to NUFC that I purchase though as I just cant see the takeover going through now with the Saudis involved, and that was crucial to me as a supporter going forward. If the trust manage to get the PL hauled over the coals and sued then that would be a reasonable outcome for me as I exit football altogether but it wouldnt be anywhere near enough to get me to re-engage with the game. This may be a glass half empty approach but even if Staveley aquires the club without Saudis then we have still lost and the PL, Quatar & establishment clubs have won. That was their collective goal - to ensure that NUFC did not gain access to Saudi wealth.

Exactly this. The PL are cunts who have bent their own rules to serve their own financial interests. But no amount of twitter protesting from NUFC fans is going to change things. The Saudi's could have changed things if they deescalated the situation with BeIn over the last few months, but they didn't and actually took steps to inflame it. Yes, we can see now that the Saudis were never going to let themselves be seen as Quatar's bitch in all of this, hence the decision to crank up the animosity even further. Their regional pride was far more important to them than this deal. And you know what?...I admire them for that. Call it foolish or balls of steel but they didnt let finance come before their principles. The corrupt PL did the opposite.

It doesn't matter how much baggage the Saudi's had, or how often they made the examination process more awkward. The simple fact is that, based on their own O&D test, their was nothing about the Saudis that could fail the test. If there was a proven link to piracy then it would have failed weeks ago. The PL didn't want the headache of being harrassed by Quatar, the London-based media and the establishment clubs after they'd have passed it, so they effectively wanted to fail it. But they knew that they couldn't do that so sat on it till the Saudis got pissed off with being messed about. We have been royally shafted, and shame on anyone who starts trying to justify the PL's actions.

I don't understand why anyone would be clinging on to the hope of when the club is eventually sold to someone else. Simple fact is that we would still ultimately be under the jurisdiction of the corrupt organisation who denied the club and the city a once in a lifetime opportunity to progress. It doesnt matter what happens from here on. I wont be able to forget the events of the last 4 months so the game is now forever tainted. Having a classless, penny pinching owner is one thing that can eventually be moved on from. But the PL organisation will always be there to remind us of what they did to us in 2020. The Premier League have done something that even Ashley could not achieve - permanently remove all hope for the future.

The point is being missed in all of this anyway, as this saga has somehow shown that Ashley isn't the real villain when you get down to brass tacks. So it doesnt matter if or when another buyer comes along, the simple fact is that this buyer was prevented from making the purchase due to corruption in the Premier League. NUFC have just had their final chance to join the elite denied them due to corruption. And from here on no takeover will offer more potential than the one just denied, or be able to erase the memory of what happened when the club was stopped from becoming the richest in the game due to the establishment clubs fearing they will be usurped. Like many, I am done with football now in all of its forms. I will hang around on here for a little while as part of the grieving process over the events of yesterday and to observe the fallout of it all. But once I have got over it then thats it for me. I read someone say earlier that Ashley's NUFC will now quickly fall apart. I disagree - this is the true beginning of his NUFC because the old one that died yesterday was the lingering remnants of the Keegan/SBR era. Those years between 1992 and 2004 have sustained the idea that NUFC could still break the elite given the right break. Well yesterday confirmed that this will never happen. And from today NUFC just moved down the rankings a few pegs, into the bracket of clubs like Sunderland & West Brom - clubs who have the odd day in the sun but generally yoyo between the top two leagues, and will never, ever challenge the establishment clubs. I also suspect they will now become a club that has a stadium that is too big for them, because they wont average anywhere near 50k crowds for a very long time, if ever. At least the sale of Strawberry Place is no longer anything to get upset about.

If this somehow falls through because of Ashley and SJP is still even half full when crowds return this club deserves to die. Drop through the leagues and never return.

I imagine the Saudis would be able to legally block the sale of the club to any other party until their own dispute with the PL has been resolved. The Mauriss thing is utter bollocks IMO.

Without a doubt. It's right there staring people in the face now. Anyone who thinks the establishment of the PL are not having any influence in this are just downright naive. If this gets rejected I hope SA have amassed enough evidence to bring the entire PL crashing down and finally bursting the bubble properly.

Fair to say now too its bollocks to suggest that Newcastle fans are just "paranoid" that the deal hasnt happened because its not an establishment club at the centre of a takeover bid. It's as clear as day that this a major factor, if not THE defining reason that this being blocked. Piracy my arse.

Then there'd be the argument about the club's valuation. They would use the funds acquired from suing the PL to cover the loss of income due to relegation.

At this rate I can actually see PIF acquiring NUFC as a Championship club. Not even kidding. That's how long this could rumble on for.

Man City were a nothing club until recently. The PL is a product, they want the investment. They don't give a fuck who the recipient is as long as it's one of their members. When City were bought it looked like it was going to put them on a par with the elite, not completely obliterate that elite financially like this takeover will (in theory) do. I mean, City themselves will look like paupers compared to NUFC. No doubt in my mind whatsoever now that the elite are doing everything they can do scupper this. And the PL have always been looking to block this deal rather than push it through.

To me this just smacks of the PL not liking how much financial muscle NUFC will have under the Saudis, hence them not liking the "management structure". Can't have those Geordies having ten times more wealth than Man City and even more so than Man Utd and Liverpool. I'm sure they'd pass it if they can somehow place the PIF in a financial straightjacket that allows the PL to remain "competitive", ie allows the established elite to continue their dominance for the foreseeable. If there is no decision this week then the Saudis should start court proceedings for blatant obstruction of trade. Ironically they would probably have more chance of legal success in this way, rather than contesting an outright rejection.

I did the exact same thing. Sacked it off last week.

Can't wait to hear Penn's thoughts on this latest development.

Absolutely no way it fizzles out with the current state of play between Qatar and Saudi. Whoever gets the outcome they favour will immediately spin it as a victory. I was referring to the fact that it will fizzle out for us as fans who hoped for a takeover. Political tensions will rumble on between SA and Qatar but that will no longer have any relevance for us.

People need to give it a rest with the "there will be a legal battle if it fails" bollocks. There will be no legal repercussions. All parties will say nothing and try to pretend that the whole farce never happened, allowing it to fizzle out with barely a murmur of complant. Meanwhile we will be left to pick up the pieces once again. I get why people keep peddling the legal action line. Its because they feel that someone, somewhere needs to pay a price for making us fans suffer like this. But its not going to happen. Unfortunately we are the ones who will be in bits about this and all of the other parties will just walk away with a shrug.

There is every chance that this was rejected weeks ago and all parties have now got their heads down, hoping that everyone just forgets that it ever happened.

I really, really hope new owners bring Rafa back next month. Not only because of how good it will be for the health of the club, but also for how much it will upset this prick and his supporters.