Ankles Bennett

And now we have Human rights group Fair Square writing to the EPL asking them to disqualify PIF from owning an EPL football club. Is this nightmare ever going to end. Just issue a statement confirming the takeover is complete then these attention seekers can crawl back where they came from .

How come Amnesty didn't write to that cruise line company objecting to PIF buying a stake in the company. PIF have invested in many diverse areas so why haven't Amnesty tried to block those investments. I'll tell you why. It's because they are too low profile. The EPL is high profile hence more publicity. Amnesty are not bothered whether PIF buy us they are just using this as a vehicle to raise their own profile and to embarrass the Saudi's. Ok so the EPL block this takeover. The PIF will probably takeover a low profile football club in France and there wont be a peep out of Amnesty because there is no publicity to be had there!!

That last part is wrong, it's very easy to circumvent even with the technology they have. True. I have an app that allows me to watch all sports channels throughout the world as well as watching all the latest films before they are released to DVD. Obviously I don't do that because that would be illegal.

BEin sport accuse SA of allowing a pirate station to broadcast sports in the Middle East, where BEin holds a monopoly. It may be that as the 80% owner of an EPL team, the Saudi's could be in pole position to buy the rights to broadcast the EPL matches in the Middle East, and that may be the real reason why BEin are trying to stop the takeover. Seems to me BEin Sports needs to invest in cutting edge technology, as the EPL has done, in order to curtail any piracy of their broadcasts. Its not like they cant afford the technology.

If we are taken over by the Saudi's, I assume that, because of the TV deals and the subsequent TV money that we are entitled to, coupled to the added interest of owning an EPL team, the Saudi state will probably sign up to broadcast the EPL games, and as such, they will not want competition for viewing from a pirate station, so I imagine the pirate station problem will go away, hopefully without any breaches of their human rights. However, if Bein get their way, and the takeover is blocked, then there is no reason for the Saudi's to block the pirate station. Notwithstanding that, this really smacks of Richard Keys doing his utmost to get his revenge on the NUFC fans who troll him.

What we don't want are these 30+ year olds where their only motivation for coming is to get one last big payday of Saudi money.

I wonder whether Perez is regretting leaving NUFC now. Perhaps Sissoko will be instructing his agent to get him a move back to NUFC this summer.

I'll say one thing in his defence. He did say he would only sell to buyers who could provide the club with the financial backing to take us to the next level. If this goes thru you cant argue that he has been true to his word on that score.

It's got to be Allegri. 5 titles in a row with Juve speaks volumes.

I completely agree with this .

Probably because the Reubens were going to be involved in regenerating rundown areas of Newcastle, maybe even rebuilding the ground itself. They are property developers after all .

And that is different to what SA are doing?

The answer to that is simple, they do. https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/national-security/ good point. The likes of Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have been critical of the USG for as long as they've existed. I wasnt looking but wasnt aware of Amnesty condemning the Wilder Fury fight.

If SA were completing a £4bn deal to buy Man U the media would be pi**ing themselves with excitement and not a mention of human rights abuse.

The US government don't own sports teams No they dont they just murder their prisoners.

It's interesting that Saudi Arabia are condemned as a murderous state by Amnesty because they torture and then execute by decapitation, yet no one blinks an eye at the USA encarcerating terrorists in Guantanamo bay and torturing them and the majority of their states execute prisoners by injecting drugs or electrocuting them to death sometimes after they have been on death row for 25 years. Why doesn't Amnesty condemn the USA of sports washing when they stage sporting events!!

Why pay £8,5M for Bentaleb and let M.Longstaff go on a free? Give Matty what he wants and don't sign Bentaleb. That would save us £8,5M plus wages. Can't see Matty demanding more than Bentaleb is earning. Do we know what Matty wants in terms of wages? Rumour has it that he is currently on £850 a week, that equates to £45k a year which isn't too shabby. For a Premier League footballer? Aye, in 1985. That's one week's wages for a below average PL player True when you realise an average player is on £45k a week but you would think £20k a week for a breakthrough season isn't beyond a reasonable demand.

Hope so, stuck a fiver on a few months ago at 80/1 when a bit tiddly Cant see it happening at least until the season is over. I think Spurs put in a clause that he has to pay back £10m if he takes a job before then.

Why pay £8,5M for Bentaleb and let M.Longstaff go on a free? Give Matty what he wants and don't sign Bentaleb. That would save us £8,5M plus wages. Can't see Matty demanding more than Bentaleb is earning. Do we know what Matty wants in terms of wages? Rumour has it that he is currently on £850 a week, that equates to £45k a year which isn't too shabby.

I wonder if the clubs having to repay the tv money if the season is voided is behind the rumours of reducing the price from £340m to around £300m or even less. If fcb refuses to accept a price reduction PIF may just walk away if they haven't already.

So yet another false dawn! We dont learn no matter how many times we get burnt do we?

If this goes ahead I imagine the Saudis will want a bigger ground. The Reubens own Newcastle Racecourse so could see a new ground being built in Gosforth Park.

High time Bruce was sacked. No tactics, no clue no chance of staying in the epl with this mong in charge.

If this takeover did have legs it looks as though the Saudis will be turning their attention to Manu again. The Glazers have indicated they will sell 80% for £1bn and retain 20%. That looks a better deal than £3bn for 100% ownership. Especially as it would cost them around £1bn to buy us and to bring us up to Manu level in terms of training facilities etc.

Anyone a subscriber to the Financial Times? Its got an article regarding Saudi buying NUFC for £350m. Probably just a rehash of what has been published elsewhere. but just wondered whether it has any legs seeing its published in the FT.