Ankles Bennett

But now not making a decision is potentially going to cost the PL a minimum of £17m. How's that? Ashley gets the 17m deposit, not them The PL's actions, or lack of them, have caused the consortium to lose the £17m deposit. They would've got it back if they'd refused the test. So they will have a case to take the PL to court to recover that money as an absolute minimum. So the PL will conclude there O&D test and refuse the takeover in order to avoid a legal battle for the £17m in which case PIF gets their £17m back. But now the PL have given a decision PIF has grounds to appeal that refusal. Could it go to a Court of Arbitration for Sport? If so they may find the PL reasons for rejecting to be unreasonable.

By the same token this applies to Man City and Sheik Mansoor as well. Who can say that MBS doesn't have the power to control the Sheffield United owner?

Fair play to the number of posters on here who predicted that only to be shot down. I guess it’s proven to be massive naivety on my part but I just didn’t foresee an entity like the PIF walking away in response to something like that. But, if what AS says is correct, the PL wanted KSA not PIF to be named as the majority director, which 'is impossible'. So with the PL refusing to approve or refuse them and with no timescale for any sort of decision, then the uncertainty going on just ends up harming the club and its ongoing plans. If the PL haven't been made formally aware of the withdrawal yet, in theory the tests are still on going. Of course the headlines will have made it back to the PL, and perhaps this will force a dialogue with them asking what is happening. Who knows, perhaps a dialogue + adverse publicity will engineer a way through to suit all parties, and it could be back on. #Clutching I suspect the PLwanted the saudi state to be named as a director so they had a solid case to reject it on the basis of their failure to combat the tv piracy. Clearly they couldn't pin that on PIF as a director. Effectively the PLtried to maneuver the consortium to a position that gave them grounds to reject instead of accepting PIF as a director.

They will probably invade Qatar now. They nearly did just that some time ago, but were persuaded not to by the Trump administration, I think it was shortly after he got elected.

Fucking hell!!!!. The cats gone missing since last night and now this. God doesn't like s geordies does he.....

This is exactly what the top 6 and their lap dog the EPL wanted. They didn't want any competition and the EPL just rolled over and sat on their hands until PIF et al got fed up waiting. Personally I am furious with the EPL. Not only have they concined us the fans to another 13 years of Ashley but the city and region have lost mega millions of investment. I'm watching the EFL from now on f***k the closed shop EPL.

So assuming the takeover does go ahead, before the transfer window slams shut, and money is no object, who do we try to buy? Kane? Messi? Ronaldo?

Gov giving a free pass to block it. I disagree, in my view its the government distancing themselves from any involvement in the EPL decision making. If the KSA thought for one minute the UK government had directed the EPL to block the takeover, I have no doubt the arms deal with KSA would be cancelled forthwith, which would then have a detrimental effect upon the UK economy at a time when the government is doing all it can to attract investment due to Covid19. This is also why they probably want the takeover to go ahead, but can't come out and publicly support it for fear of attracting adverse publicity from Amnesty etc for apparently supporting the regime despite its human rights abuses and TV piracy. In other words the government is sitting on the fence quite happy to see the EPL take the rap whichever way this takeover goes.

Mansoor is the deputy Prime Minister and as such could be regarded as the head of state when the Prime Minister is out of the country. For all we know he could have ordered the deaths of any number of people who were actively opposed to the state. Granted this is unsubstantiated supposition on my part, but the only difference is that MBS was caught out, and lets not overlook that this is what heads of state do, granted its usually based upon intelligence and/or military advice, whatever that might have been in the case of Khashoggi, but I recall a certain Barak Obama sat in the incident room in the White House with a nice cup of coffee watching a Seal team execute Osama Bin Laden on his orders, does that make Obama a murderer? Not that he would want to, but I can't see the EPL refusing to allow him to buy an EPL club on that basis, can you?

Didn't they say Al Rummayan would be chairman from the off? Not sure why that should be an issue or why the PL wouldn't allow someone from PIF to be involved? 'You can pay the money but can't get involved' doesn't seem right. A while back someone in here mentioned that in the tests they look into/need details of anyone who could potentially have an influence on the things going forward, I'm assuming this is just an extension of that part of the test as PIF are huge and I Imagine it's massively complicated (not to mention fuckin stupid considering it could include shit loads of people). I'm probably over-simplifying it. That would (probably) be me - because I'm sick to the back teeth of people making silly or overly-simplistic arguments. I've posted the following at least three times, because a lot of people just don't get it: So this is the owner of man City, Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (born 20 November 1970), often referred to as Sheikh Mansour, is an Emirati politician who is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, minister of presidential affairs and member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. He is the half brother of the current President of UAE, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is also the chairman of the ministerial council for services, the Emirates Investment Authority and the Emirates Racing Authority. He sits on the Supreme Petroleum Council and the boards of numerous investment companies including the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC). Mansour also owns stakes in a number of business ventures, including Virgin Galactic and Sky News Arabia.[6] He is also the owner of the privately held Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), a specialist investment company that acquired Manchester City Football Club in September 2008, though immediately handed all responsibility and ownership to Khaldoon Al Mubarak and the City Football Group which has overseen a significant transformation at the club since then. I just don't see the difference between what the EPL have accepted in regards to Man City and what PIF plan in terms of the intended management structure. The EPL cant seriously suggest that Mansoor doesn't have control over Khaldoon Al Mubarak and the City Football Group.

I don't mind the city. I just remember being down there for a friendly around 10(?... Fraser Foster howler) year ago, stayed after the game, missed our train home as we met a few 'decent' fans and had drinks, ended up getting set about by the same cunts as the night went on and more of them appeared. Understand we all have this type of fan, but it left a bitter taste, therefore, cunts the lot of them Before that I didnt give a shit about them. That was a regular thing in Leeds . Don't know if it still holds but in the 80s/90s/00s they had an above average number of compmete knacker fans and a particular dislike for us that even spread away from the football. Also we have a depot there and nowt to do with football,they are known throughout the country in our trade as being arseholes. We once stopped in Leeds for a night out after an away hammering at Man U in the 80s and the same thing happened, opposite the train station. Ended up with an image of a coin embedded on the side of my nose from some twats ring. Fucking arseholes the lot of them. We had it on a 21st, a stag doo and just a night out with a mate who was at uni there. As soon as they heard our accents you could feel the atmosphere change.. Liverpool it was just around the football, other nights were fine, but Leeds, horrid, long time ago now mind, could be different. Hope so as the city itself was ok with the best Indian deli/Lunch/Snack place ever. We had a bad one at Liverpool as well actually, we were in a bar right at the ground (arkles I think) before the game, absolutely sound, knocked us back after the game and sent us along the road to the flat iron, kind of bar that still has sawdust on the floor and the piano stops when you walk in long story short we ended up standing outside surrounded by about 20 young'ns launching bottles etc... Wasnt just us, there was a few toon fans directed to that bar. Liverpool has always been one of my most hated, and again I understand we all have prick fans, but that rubberstamped my hatred for them. Had similar in Liverpool, licked our arses till they had us massively outnumbered then it kicks off, both sides of Liverpool Red and Blue. I think Brummie said he'd had similar there and I've heard it round the country. Its just on Football days though, other nights there had been fine. Not Leeds though. As I say it was a while so hopefully not like that now. Went to Liverpool on a two week course. I've visited most cities in the uk and never felt as threatened as I did in Liverpool. Despise the place.

Well I've been living and working in Leeds since 1991 and the Leeds fans I know are sound. One even loaned me his season ticket so I could take my young son to see the under 23's play Leeds under 23's.

It would be ironic if the takeover was rejected because of the Reubens rather than the PIF.

I don't believe you when you say you have read the test. If you had, you would know the bolded part is immaterial. Firstly, this fixation that PIF need to be directly tied to piracy is fallacious. The O&D Director test applies to not just PIF/PCP/RB directorial nominees, it applies to anyone whom the PL believes can exert influence (direct or indirect) over the club. Like so: (from the PL handbook linked above) I can appreciate that is very dense legalese, but there's no way the separation between PIF and the Saudi government can survive that definition. And it doesn't even need to be proven - just "reasonable opinion". Sure, they need to provide written explanations, and certainly they can try their luck in civil courts and international tribunals. But, reading back, it seems that's what you're hanging your hat on. I can only shake my head in disbelief that you have any faith in those institutions. There's also the incredibly broad and nebulous disqualification clause that similarly requires only reasonable belief. So I come back to my belief that while the PL could (and probably should) reject it according to its own rules. That they haven't indicates to me that they want to approve it, but there's a lot of massaging their aggravated half-billion pound commercial partner before that can happen. Its all very well saying the PL only need "reasonable belief", but that opens another can of worms regarding the definition of "reasonable". I do know that certainly in the Health and Safety regulations in the UK, the courts have refused to define the term "reasonable", so any adverse decision by the PL based upon a "reasonable belief" is certainly open to a legal challenge.. What is "reasonable" to the PL will almost certainly not be "reasonable" to the consortium, accordingly I would think the PL would have to provide concrete evidence to support their "reasonable belief", which would probably have to be clear documented evidence that MBS has exerted an adverse influence over any of the other companies owned by PIF, and that may be exceedingly difficult for the PL to prove.

The Saudis could declare war on the U.K., use all he weapons they bought from us to destroy us. The Saudis ? Theyre only good at bombing defencless third world places like Yemen they couldnt fight their way out of a paper bag You do realise it's not just the Saudis bombing the Yemen. It's a coalition of most of the middle east countries including Egypt Jordan UAE and even Qatar.

I'm with you on this one. Once the PL season ends we will find out one way or the other.

I draft legal submissions to High Court Judges on a daily basis so its a nice change to forego drafting in easily digested paragraphs.

Just because BEin have bought the rights to broadcast the EPL in MENA doesn't mean those countries have to screen the games BEin broadcast, in much the same way we in the UK don't have to subscribe to Sky if we don't want to watch the EPL. I assume if random viewers in MENA want to pay a subscription fee to BEin to watch EPL games then they are free to do so, but its not compulsory to have to subscribe if you don't want to watch the EPL. KSA clearly think that banning BEin from broadcasting in the KSA will weaken their ability to generate funding. Not that they were generating funding in KSA beforehand due to the piracy from BEoutQ. However I imagine not everyone in the KSA was into piracy and there may well have been a substantial number of viewers in the KSA who did pay a subscription fee to BEin in order to watch the EPL. However, shutting down the piracy meant that the KSA footballing fans would then have to pay a subscription fee to BEin for the right to watch the EPL in the KSA. Clearly the Saudi government don't want to allow BEin to benefit financially from the KSA due to BEin previously having them over a barrel in terms of monopolistic behaviour. BEin paid £500m for the rights to broadcast to the whole of MENA. In banning BEin from broadcasting in the KSA, the broadcasting region as a whole has now been dramatically reduced in size, which in turn, drastically reduces the revenue that can be generated by BEin. In effect BEin were losing subscription fees due to piracy. The KSA has now banned piracy in the KSA but has then ensured that BEin will not profit from banning the piracy by banning broadcasting in the KSA. So by asking the EPL to block the PIF takeover until the piracy was eradicated, BEin will continue to lose the subscription fees from the KSA that was previously down to piracy, but crucially they have also lost any subscriptions that they were receiving from the KSA. Hoisted by their own petard springs to mind!

That's assuming the Saudis buy us x

Okay let's forget all this takeover bollocks and who do we we sign for each position money and wages no problem. Quite like the prospect of Messi and Ronaldo.

I'm not in favour of Pochatino. He had mega bucks at spurs plus two class strikers and still couldn't win anything. Much prefer Benitez.

Seems to me that BEin have opened a can of Lambton worms that have turned on them.

So KSA buy the rights to broadcast the EPL throughout the KSA. BEin go to the EPL asking for compensation for the loss of the right to broadcast in the KSA, The EPL compensates BEin by paying them what the KSA paid for the broadcast rights in the KSA. Effectively the KSA has compensated BEin through a third party, piracy in the region is wiped out and the EPL has two countries ready to go to war in terms of outbidding the other in order to buy the TV rights to broadcast the EPL in the region.

I fully expect this takeover to be rejected by the PL, but I believe the PL are waiting until the current season has ended so there are no games left where fans can turn up outside SJP to demonstrate against their decision. We won't be given an adequate explanation either, it will simply be a case of the EPL saying "no comment, our decision is based upon a confidential process" when asked for an explanation. Is my glass half empty or half full?

It took the EPL 8 months to agree the Souhthampton takeover after they initially failed the O&D test, so it appears we may have to wait quite a bit longer for any word from the EPL on our takeover.