Ankles Bennett

Surely its easy enough for MBS to resign his position as chairman of the PIF if indeed that is the only obstacle to the takeover going ahead. As for MBS being chairman it doesn't necessarily mean he has or indeed wants the powers to radically influence decisions taken by PIF, otherwise what is the point of having Al Rumayan? as the managing director to handle the decision making processes of the PIF. It may be that as Chairman, MBS gets to sign off decisions taken by the PIF hierarchy, but that could very well be a one way street. I imagine MBS has far more important issues of State to deal with rather than interfering in the running of a football club. However, quite apart from that, if they do reject the takeover, it doesn't strike me as anything remotely like an incentive for the KSA to address the piracy issue, far from it in fact. It seems to me that the most sensible and acceptable course of action is for the EPL to approve the takeover, but only on the basis that they receive concrete assurances from the KSA that legal action against piracy will be allowed in the KSA courts, where previously it has been denied. Given the refusal to allow this in the past it may all hinge on that, and the KSA/PIF may decide to walk away rather than allow damaging and expensive court cases to proceed in the Kingdom.

It seems pointless to block the takeover due to piracy as that will just ensure it continues which means Bein will reduce their bid for TV rights. If its passed then MBS may be inclined to put a stop to it .

Surely the EPLshould be investigating why BoutQ are stealing Bein's football. I'm sure I read somewhere that because of the political tension between KSA and QATAR that Bein had blocked the KSA from watching the EPL on their stream thus creating the soccer vacuum in KSA. It seems to me that if KSA wins the bidding war for the EPL tv rights and blocks Qatar then they would presumably resort to stealing footie matches from the KSA. The only course is for KSA and Qatar to make a joint bid but that ain't going to happen is it.

This simply isn't true though. The French court case ruled that Arabsat was indeed carrying the signal, and they're headquartered in Riyadh. The bit you're citing is that they said that because Arabsat doesn't really have much impact in France, they couldn't award damages because in France there wasn't "clear and illegal disruption" to French revenues and broadcasts. It's not like Arabsat were found innocent, quite the reverse. They just couldn't be sued in Saudi because they were blocked from doing so by the Saudi government, so they tried to sue in France. And although the French court was happy that Arabsat were carrying a pirate signal, the reach of the satellite signal wasn't strong enough for it to impact French revenues. People need to stop painting this like the French court looked into Arabsat and found it was absolutely fine. Yes but everyone seems to be overlooking that Arabsat is owned by about 25 middle east countries including Egypt, SA and Qatar to name just a few. SA has something like a 38% share of the business and is the major shareholder, but Qatar are also a shareholder of Arabsat with something like an 18% shareholding. I would have thought that as a shareholder surely they would also be judged culpable if Arabsat was providing a platform for a pirate signal?

The Epl needs to draw a line under this. Set a deadline for objections, investigate, and if objections are groundless, ratify the takeover. End of!!!

They wont come to uk as they would have to quarantine for 2 weeks.

I would guess this takeover is going to be confirmed when Eid is proclaimed. So that's either saturday or sunday depending on the sighting of the crescent moon following the full moon.

It can only happen to NUFC. We become the richest club in the world and competitive football goes down the pan because of this pandemic.

Seems to me that the PL want to knock the Saudi deal back but want government backing when the Saudi's take legal action.

The training ground still has the building that housed the squash courts that I used when it was still the Civil Service Sports ground. Played my best ever 11 a side football match there in 1982 when everything I tried worked. Scored 4 goals and made 5 for a mate who used to be on the toons books as a youngster.

6 months ago no one on this chat forum gave a monkey's about human rights abuse in KSI so why now?

Its going to happen today. Just threw some bread out for the resident blackbird and a magpie suddenly lands on my lawn. It's a new build house and never seen a magpie in garden before. It's an omen!!!!Get the cans out !!!

I'll give it to 4pm

I wonder whether the delay is because the PL have found something dodgy on the current PIF chairman who was due to be the NUFC chairman/director, and PIF have had to appoint a new chairman who will pass the EPL test as a NUFC chairman/director. Just speculation on my part, but running the test again on the new director might explain the delay.

Looks like PIF are buying Botafago football club. Could be a nursery club for NUFC to pick up the top Brazilian youngsters.

I find it astonishing that people that resort to posting on social media actually think they have a reputation worth defending.

In my limited view we all seem to be missing the reason for what we all perceive as human rights abuses in saudi, is their religion which requires medieval punishments, i.e removing hands for theft etc. Radically altering the punishments for transgressors would be tantamount to denying the validity of their religion. In that circumstance the religious leaders would almost certainly stir up the populace to oust the House of Saud which would then in all likelihood be replaced by even harder line rulers opposed to western influences. The western government view seems to me to be it's basically better devil you know!

As I have previously suggested, the takeover will probably be announced once the lockdown has been lifted, so the Crown Prince, Staveley and the Reubens can be pictured standing in the centre circle of SJP wearing their black and white footy shirts.

Ok so I'll start it off what I want to see when this takeover is completed. I would like to see the club build an academy campus with hotel style accommodation and state of the art education, training and rehabilitation facilities in order to attract the top young talent from around the world.

Is it possible they are waiting for lockdown to be lifted before announcing takeover is complete. Maybe they want to be seen at SJP with the keys and a few bottles of bubbly?

Haven't read this entire thread but I'm sure its been noted here that Rafa wins trophies whereas Poch still hasn't won anything despite getting substantial backing while at Spurs.

If its poch, danny rose ain't going to be too keen on staying with us.

Owning businesses that are making a loss means he can offset any profits from SD against those losses so he pays less tax on his profits.

Prior to this takeover were the conscientious objectors really actively objecting to the saudi regime until the opportunity to do so was placed in their lap by Amnesty objecting.

Surely the best way forward is to play the games at St George's and Wembley. Then with each club playing as many as three games a week it would see the season played out over 3 to 4 weeks. So the season could be over by mid june with the fa cup final played mid July. Put the start of next season back by one month. Gives the players time to have a holiday and return for pre season at the start of August. Then squeeze in a few midweek games to ensure the season ends the following may 2021. Sorted!!