Whitley mag

https://www.policyforum.net/newcastles-takeover-and-the-politics-of-sport/ Thought the Professor had slunk away, even the Ronny gill don’t ask for his opinion these days.

At least there’s hope at the minute, if it gets rejected i think that’ll be it for thousands. I’ll certainly be fu#%ing off the premier league and be finished for good.

They will have to show that PIF, a separate legal entity, were involved in piracy, if the can’t then the takeover will go through. what are you basing this confident post on? Read the last couple of paragraphs of this report. https://www.footballlaw.co.uk/articles/newcastle-united-fc-takeover-and-the-premier-leagues-owners-and-directors-test there's a lot of sense there, however it kind of ignores that the PL are allowed to reject "if they believe" (or words to that effect) that an applicant is guilty of something and the massive unknown here is just what pressure/influence exactly qatar is throwing at this...PL execs will be as corrupt as anyone else, if they're being bought off then that'll be that fwiw i've always thought they'd approve it and still do You’d be right to believe Premier League is corrupt. This article is a good insight into how certain clubs namely Man U and Liverpool got to exert influence over selection of premier league CEO. How these 2 clubs were allowed to interview and rule out a candidate is staggering in a business with 20 stakeholders. When you hear about other clubs expressing concerns with this takeover, it certainly makes you wary of what shenanigans could be going on with self interest in mind. Despite all the bad press regarding this deal, I believe we’ll have every right to feel hard done by if they block it. https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/02/how-will-new-premier-league-chief-executive-richard-masters-reshape-football

I feel the opposite of that. The Premier League know that (commercially) the deal is done, the club is sold, and they also know that their League needs us and the Saudi's money, rather than letting it go elsewhere in these financially 'devastating' times that are ahead in the UK. It is difficult to overstate how bad our Financial Crash is going to be. So, they are desperate to approve the takeover, but they KNOW how much high profile (but irrelevant) 'flack' they will get when they approve it, so they are going to use the WTO Report Findings as their 'explanation' that it was NOT 'PIF' (the legal entity) who were responsible for the Piracy. That is how I see it playing out - so expect to hear very good news this week . . . Really hope your right and I’m wrong but we’ll see.

Is this WTO report going to be made public? Is the best case scenario that the report says they could have done more to stop it rather than they were behind it? And even if the report does say the Saudis are behind it, will it matter anyway if PIF aren't mentioned in it? It’ll appear on their website at some point this week, but with these bodies there can always be delays so who knows. The Guardian reported that it was a slam dunk for Qatar to quote them, so I would imagine that is the best the Saudis can hope for. That’s the key question and nobody really knows the answer to that part from the premier league.

More like anxious week ahead is my guess, press will have a field day when this WTO report is released. Best we can hope is that it finds they could have done more to prevent. If it goes as far as saying their behind it brace yourself. Genuinely think if we hear this week it’ll be bad news, as they’ll be using WTO report as cover. My guess is it drags on and it gets approved once the football is back underway.

Nothing new but never get tired of listening to this bloke. He gets what this club is all about.

Sounds ominous. So strict apart from Southampton nobody can name a buyer that has failed. Does the decision have to be made public? I assume if the process is confidential and prospective owners don't discuss the outcome then it's possible there are failures you don't hear about. Possibly I think that has been mentioned. This will be a very public failure though if that’s the outcome. Some would say the Saudis would see it as a humiliation, especially with their Qatar friends behind it. I think that leaked letter is pretty clear what outcome the U.K. govt would like. Let’s hope the premier league value the opinion of our govt, over their friends from Qatar. I would also recommend watching house of Saud on bbc I player, it’ll give you a pretty good idea how far uk government’s have gone to protect the relationship with them. I don’t comment much on this thread Never said I didn’t.

Sounds ominous. So strict apart from Southampton nobody can name a buyer that has failed. Does the decision have to be made public? I assume if the process is confidential and prospective owners don't discuss the outcome then it's possible there are failures you don't hear about. Possibly I think that has been mentioned. This will be a very public failure though if that’s the outcome. Some would say the Saudis would see it as a humiliation, especially with their Qatar friends behind it. I think that leaked letter is pretty clear what outcome the U.K. govt would like. Let’s hope the premier league value the opinion of our govt, over their friends from Qatar. I would also recommend watching house of Saud on bbc I player, it’ll give you a pretty good idea how far uk government’s have gone to protect the relationship with them.

Sounds ominous. So strict apart from Southampton nobody can name a buyer that has failed.

More to the point.

Interesting hopefully the trust politely pointed out 97% of the fan base support this takeover. https://twitter.com/NUFC360/status/1271693511566516224/

People moaning about this thread, yes there’s been some s*** posted, I don’t exclude myself either. However, It’s a good release when you get pi#%ed off about this takeover, and the way the media have reported on it. If this takeover has done anything it’s given us all something else to think about, just think it must have been pretty boring supporting a normal club over these last few weeks. End of the day it’s a forum for opinions and comments, if everyone only ever posted facts it would be a pretty boring place.

The report is complete. So nothing to delay it. Still due on the 14th (I think). Unless it's appealed against by either or both sides Yes but it can’t be appealed until it’s unveiled... surely? Which is what I (thought I) was answering. Correct. Incorrect https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/disp1_e.htm So is it possible this report will not apportion blame, but make recommendations for a resolution ?

Close friends with Boris is wor Jamie.

It would be naive to suggest off the record conversations hadn’t taken place. The Premier League wouldn’t want to be responsible for pissing the Saudis off, then the Saudis reducing investment in U.K. Hopefully this holds more sway than any WTO findings.

There can only be one conclusion to draw if the Premier League are waiting for the WTO report to be published, and that is to block it. All reports indicate they have the draft copy, and if I remember correctly was understood to be a ‘slam dunk for Qatar’ ? So if they have the draft and we’re planning to use it as leverage with Saudis surely they would be doing that now. To wait for the report can only mean as mentioned above, that they are going to hide behind WTO’s verdict. I honestly don’t believe the premier league have the resources or know how to prove the Saudis are guilty, however this report would give then an out. I think we’ll see some exclusives from the broadsheets this weekend, possibly Jason Burt and we might know where they’re heading with this.

Here’s another pr#%k for good measure. Journo’s having a mare over this takeover. https://twitter.com/MiguelDelaney/status/1271373103835295744/

Looks like a few people heard the video rolling afterwards. https://twitter.com/agbnufc/status/1271097034544726018/

What am I missing here? He's saying that being cross-examined in a billion-pound legal case is showing her up? A quick scan of his timeline shows a fair few RT's of stories poo-pooing the takeover. Wonder why. The same Martin Hardy who wrote Rafa’s way, penned this article claiming his job was on the line. At a time when most people thought Ashley was the problem, I always found it a bit strange. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/newcastle-rafa-benitez-fighting-a-losing-battle-arsenal-a8113141.html

Think most will be just happy with a professionally ran and ambitious club. Their looking at the training ground we know, and Caulkin mentioned on his podcast stadium has been discussed with local politicians. That is already on another level compared to the current lot. It may not be Man City or Chelsea levels, and that would make sense with PIF involvement. It’s a wealth fund at the end of the day, however they will look to grow club let’s not kid ourselves.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/newcastle-takeover-latest-transfer-news-saudi-arabia-a9560086.html/ Not to bad considering it’s the independent.

Luke's had a shocker during this. Clearly has very few contacts and just prayed that predicting a s*** storm would come up good. He's obviously desperate for the takeover to fall through. Every time a negative article becomes public he seems to get all excited and goes off on a twitter rampage with baffling tweets. The guy is a f***ing idiot. When documents went public on companies house didn't he try and play them down and then said he didn't understand them? The guy has made a complete arse of himself ever since Bruce arrived here. Yeah think his credibility is shot in relation to the takeover. His story about Mauriss the other day was s%%t aswell, he climbs on the back of other people’s stories with his own negative spin.

Yup - it's long been my fear that all of these positive noises were coming from one source. Could easily be misguided/wrong/badly advised. Disagree they’ll have a good idea from the league’s lawyers who they’ll have been dealing with on a daily basis. Yes it has to go to the board, but this is obviously complex and I can’t see them going against the legal advice. Either where waiting for a remedy to tv situation, or they’ll just pass it based on PIF being a separate legal entity. Hmmm. Well, it's all guesswork but I'd have said if they were 'good to go' and 'expecting an announcement over the next 24 hours' and 'cans in the fridge' then I'd say they were given a bum steer by the Lawyers as that was over a month ago. The TV situation and the seperate entity argument have been there since day 1 and yet the deal still seems nowhere near being done. I'd say it's entirely reasonable to be doubting the validity of the prior positive noises coming from the buyers side tbh. I see where your coming from, but I genuinely think they were given the nod. However, that Monday news broke of further evidence being submitted. Now everything subsequently points to this being the WTO draft report. I genuinely believe it is the fact this has become so public has unnerved the board. I believe legally this has the go ahead from lawyers, however board wanted more info re piracy under pressure from Bein. Now where in a situation where solution to keep all parties happy is taking place, hence confidence of buyers. We’ve always been told it’s an ongoing discussion. I’m convinced it’ll be sorted but understand doubts. See what you're saying but if there's any way that their lawyers have either approved it or word has leaked that they can't see a reason to deny it then you'd imagine the buyers would be pressurising the f*** out of the PL who now seem keen to use the leverage as much as possible. That leverage disappears the minute the buyers know the PL cannot legally stand in their way so, for me, I'm not that confident but hope you are right obviously. Though this doesn’t give us answers, it just reinforces my belief that ongoing discussions will eventually result in a resolution. I don’t think we should underestimate Staveley and the Reubens part in this. They are influential, respected and high profile British business people.

Simon Bird opinion piece for balance. I might have been hasty calling him a mackem Cnut, but emotions running high. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-needs-newcastle-thrive-22165062