Penn

I know you're wrong. Because someone told Caulkin, who told someone your missus works with, who told you? Hearing things first hand from No Red Flags George has proved to be absolutely worthless, so not sure 3rd/4th/5th-hand info is grounds to be confident.

This is critical to their vision 2030. Not a chance that if this is revived PIF aren't the majority shareholders. You think the purchase of NUFC is 'critical' to transforming the economy of Saudi Arabia and reducing its dependency on oil revenue? So many of you have a completely distorted understanding of the importance of this deal. The Saudis are in the process of imposing unprecedented austerity measures on their population. There is no appetite for this any more.

I'm sure the PL would much rather paying Ashley a settlement fee than getting dragged through court, but could the PL afford a fee substantial enough to make Ashley not pursue legal action? Ashley is out of pocket anything up to and around at least £100 million - this number comes from the determination that the current takeover agreement was for £300 million and the estimate is that any new valuation (post COVID19) for NUFC would likely be substantially less than that (e.g. around £200 million or less, the difference being the £100 million). So, if he pursued the PL in the courts then he would likely seek damages of around £100 million + legal costs. Other conversations have suggested that the buying consortium might sue the PL to recover their £17 million deposit (I won't address the legitimacy or otherwise of that claim here), but there have also been suggestions that having to pay out £17 million would likely bankrupt the League. So, if the PL wanted to pay out Ashley (to prevent a court case), how much could the PL afford? Could the PL afford a large enough payout to make Ashley go away (e.g. £10 million would only be 10% of Ashley's likely/potential claim), without bankrupting themselves? The PL have assets of around £400,000 and a turnover of around £3m (their acounts are freely available on Companies House). It could be that the clubs would be asked to step in to bail them out but the Premier League Ltd would not be likely to be able to afford to pay out much. You're looking at the wrong accounts. (not that it matters, because Ashley suing the Premier League is another fantasy scenario that people are believing in because it's a comforting, rather than realistic, thought)

Married in to Hexham aristocracy and has a couple of properties up here, and a massive Toon fan apparently. This is ON.

It's irrelevant. Ashley purchased an entity he knew was subject to the governance of the Premier League. The idea that clubs aren't subject to new Premier League rules because they weren't in place at the time the club was purchased by their current owners is absurd. Recourse to the courts is extremely limited for both Ashley and the consortium. All this talk about the PL being dragged through the courts etc. is a comforting thought for some, but isn't grounded in any legal reality.

Yeah, Daniel is legit and well connected in City circles. He's not coming out with a tweet like that unless there's something concrete behind it.

What would you like to talk about, bud? I'm an open book.

This is one of the dafter angles (and they're all pretty daft) being pushed. There doesn't need to be any shadowy links between the Premier League and Qatar - Qatar pump 100s of millions of pounds into the Premier League's coffers every year as a result of the beIN deal. That's the financial link that's important and it's in the public domain. Everything else is conspiratorial fantasy that will come to absolutely nothing.

Hilarious. I see Wraith's reputation has been pretty much reformed as a result of this farce in the eyes of many. You're all being played in ways you'd struggle to comprehend.

I can't help but note that in this report (and when they first reported it) they totally completely skip over that the PL are being called corrupt by fans, that that hashtag is trending, and why it is felt that they are corrupt. Can't put it down to libel either as all they would be reporting on is what is being posted. I love the BBC, but this is just lip service. Why would the BBC report completely evidence-less accusations of corruption aimed at the Premier League from randoms on Twitter? It would be an absurd thing to write. "Twitter user MBSIZOURKING tweeted 'Masters ur a corrupt Qatari cunt m8 fuck off!11'"

He has very high-level contacts within the KSA regime (for obvious reasons). Also well connected in the City. I'd certainly take what he has to say seriously.

Always a good sign when a movement lapses into fake quotes and conspiracism. Engage your brains man.

Greg, these are my ideas: 1. Ask the CMA to investigate anti-competitive behaviour by the PL and member clubs in colluding to prevent the takeover. 2. Create a stock email that members from throughout the UK can send to their MPs asking them to support Chi’s correspondence with Masters and to support an investigation into the PL by the CMA 3. Actively engage Alok Sharma, Ed Milliband and Lucy Powell to persuade them to push the CMA to investigate the PL. be sure to point out that this issue creates a precedent which has ramifications for 90 other clubs, not just our own 4. Through the FSA engage with other supporter groups. Remind them of times that NUFC fans have helped out their clubs and then ask club groups to engage their own clubs to tell them that interfering in another club’s takeover is not cool. 5. Ask the PL whether they have investigated the information provided to them by C4 about Everton not disclosing Usmanov’s involvement in their takeover. Or any other similar post takeover O&D infringements. 6. Engage with the Chronicle to run some highly negative stories on the PL on their front page. 7. Draw up a long list of ex-players in terms of their national stature and invite them to become involved in NUST and get involved in the critique of the PL. 8. Need some sort of responsible protest. A front door boo for the PL throughout Newcastle maybe? Another one would be a citywide boycott of PL sponsors coupled with online disruption of sponsor social media activities. 9. Accept that moving forward it is going to be hard to run protests and constructively engage with PL and NUFC. Choose which you want to be and open the door for a non-affiliated group to take the other role. Just insane. I really thought the deal collapsing would break some of you from your stupors but no - you've all just leaned into it. Genuinely embarrassed to be a Newcastle fan. Fucking hell.

They're clowns who've never learned how to placate or negotiate or strategise or be diplomatic - the oil money has always bailed them out.

Because it's not seen as any sort of scandal outside of the NUFC fanbase - the Saudis were incapable of passing the ownership tests given their industrial-scale piracy of the Premier League's intellectual property, and therefore withdrew their bid. That's the story for people who aren't emotionally invested in Mike Ashley not being the owner of Newcastle United.

Unfortunately it's a low bar. A really proper good journalist wouldn't rely on a single source, or would at least do the leg work investigating what his source had told him. George doesn't, he reports what he's told to report. It's a shame he's been reporting what we wanted to hear, but surely he should have been banging on the Reubens door to confirm, or talking to someone from PIF too. Not too say he hasn't been trying, but just spouting whatever Staveley has told him is pretty weak, and not too different to tabloids. That's bollocks tbf. He reported what he was being told, and said as much. He didn't make any bold predictions either way. It's not the job of every journalist to analyse the whole deal at all points. Why's it Bollocks? Never said anything about predictions at all or analysing the details of a deal. Just saying that a journalist should follow up on what they're being told is true before reporting it. If i were a journalist and was told from a trusted source that Donald Trump was actually a replicant from the future, I think i'd want first hand confirmation or evidence from second source before putting it in my paper. Not really. If I was a journalist and say, someone close to Joe Biden told me that, of course I'd report it. There's nothing wrong with reporting what a source tells you without delivering an opinion on it whether you think its ridiculous or not. That's not really being a journalist then is it? Caulkin's been Staveley's stenographer throughout this ordeal and he's been made to look an absolute mug, for the second time. Not once has he provided any sort of analysis or critique of what he's been fed or its reliability, he's just unthinkingly regurgitated it at every opportunity. It's pathetic to be honest.

Curious that Staveley, while crying on the phone to journalists this afternoon, hadn't mentioned an incredibly significant and relevant detail like this. Completely contradicted it, in fact. Fucking hell lads, I know Golfmag knew about Pardew's appointment a decade ago, but it's time to let go of the idea he's got a scooby. Please, just use your heads

Like so much on here, (a) is a forum fever dream that has absolutely no basis in reality.

Not an issue! What was all the fuss about?! Thanks for that Mandy pet!

It's not about some forum victory you goofball - it was pure, blind, uncritical optimism to think this deal was ever getting approved. Saudis vs Qataris and you think the PL are siding with the group that have stolen from them on an industrial scale over the side that's put hundreds of millions in their pockets? Time for some on here to reflect why they couldn't see what was staring them in the face.

There was no way it was ever getting approved. The writing was on the wall many, many months ago.

Golfmag does that all the time. He can't help himself.

So strange that it's been the conventional way of distributing sports broadcast packages across most of the Middle East, Spanish-speaking Latin America and vast swathes of Africa for decades. So strange!

Feel like this might not go through now actually.

More effusive ball-fondling of Bruce immediately followed by dismay at what Newcastle players are doing.