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Various: N-O has lost the plot over potential end of Mike Ashley's tenure


Jinky Jim

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Has Richard Keys said any more since his conspiracy rantings from a few weeks ago?

 

If so have BeIn told him to shut up? Might suggest there are negotiations ongoing...

 

He is conspicuous by his silence.

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Guest chopey

He did tell us last week to forget about putting time and effort into restarting football and concentrate on getting the kiddies back to school (he must have a soccer mom he has his eyes on)

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Has Richard Keys said any more since his conspiracy rantings from a few weeks ago?

If so have BeIn told him to shut up? Might suggest there are negotiations ongoing...

He is conspicuous by his silence.

He's probably just bored himself with his awful patter.

I don't think we should be trying to read into anything.

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Adviser to Manchester City Owner Has Role in Newcastle Sale

Ali Jassim, a close business associate of the billionaire who owns Manchester City, is serving as a broker in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to buy the Premier League team Newcastle United.

 

 

By Tariq Panja

June 15, 2020, 5:35 a.m. ET

 

LONDON — A trusted adviser to the billionaire Gulf owner of the English Premier League champion Manchester City has emerged as a key player in discussions to sell another Premier League club, Newcastle United, to a group led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

 

Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that the adviser, Ali Jassim, joined forces last year with a British businesswoman and an American socialite to shepherd the sale of Newcastle United to the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi state’s strategic investment arm, for as much as 350 million pounds ($439 million).

 

The Saudi fund, whose chairman is the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is in talks to become the majority owner of Newcastle in a deal with the club’s owner, the retail tycoon Mike Ashley. The Premier League is reviewing both the deal and the fitness of the proposed owners.

 

According to the cooperation agreement, Jassim, who is based in Puerto Rico, would join forces with Amanda Staveley, a British investment adviser he met while working on the purchase of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the brother of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and Carla DiBello, a socialite friend of Kim Kardashian West.

 

The involvement of such a diverse cast of rainmakers and middlemen in a plan to broker the sale of a Premier League franchise to Gulf interests underscores the enduring appeal of English soccer teams to global plutocrats. But it also shows the key role personal relationships can play in deals involving the most high-profile figures and institutions in the Arab world, and the rich rewards available to those who can forge them.

 

DiBello and Staveley’s roles in the Newcastle United sale have been reported, and each has a defined role in the process.

 

While DiBello has little experience in deals the size of the Newcastle sale, The Wall Street Journal reported that she has developed a close relationship with the Public Investment Fund’s governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is representing the fund in the sale. Staveley, who for years has cultivated a public image highlighting her proximity to influential figures in the Gulf, is responsible for negotiating with Ashley.

 

Jassim’s role is less clear. The agreement describes him as having “significant experience in identifying, coordinating and consuming large cross-border transactions,” though it does not define his role in the proposed Newcastle acquisition.

 

A spokesman for the proposed ownership group declined to comment.

 

Of the three intermediaries, Staveley is the most familiar to British soccer fans. A regular on the sports and business pages of British newspapers for much of the past decade, she was linked with Gulf-backed efforts to buy into Liverpool and she played a key role in City’s sale to its Emirati owners. She is said to have negotiated a 10 percent stake in Newcastle should she manage to guide the Saudi-backed takeover bid to a successful conclusion.

 

The fate of the deal, which now also includes two billionaire British property investors, who would also own 10 percent of the team, remains uncertain. A Premier League review of the sale that started several weeks ago remains incomplete amid mounting criticism of the prospect of Saudi Arabia’s buying into the world’s most-watched soccer league.

 

Significantly, the Premier League has come under huge pressure to block the sale from beIN Media Group, a Qatari-owned television network, which accuses Saudi Arabia of pirating billions of dollars worth of its programming, including Premier League matches. Human rights groups have also lobbied the Premier League to block the sale. The league is not known to have stopped a sale of a team to any owner with the resources to acquire it.

 

The Newcastle talks come at the same time Staveley is involved in a billion-dollar lawsuit related to the multibillion-dollar rescue of the British bank Barclays by Sheikh Mansour at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. Staveley has accused Barclays of costing her an investment in what would have been a lucrative deal.

 

Jassim, who eventually helped Staveley receive 30 million pounds (about $37.5 million) for her efforts, has agreed to appear as a witness in the lawsuit.

 

Jassim, who was also involved in Sheikh Mansour’s purchase of Manchester City, appeared to develop a close friendship with Staveley around that time, according to text message transcripts submitted in evidence. In one, he declared that he would “always have ur back” as the tensions over payments from Barclays started to grow.

 

“U are very dear to me,” he said in another message, before adding, “We have a fruitful future together.”

 

Jassim is scheduled to give evidence via video link from Puerto Rico on June 22.

 

Premier League officials are likely to be paying close attention, given Staveley’s interests — and now Jassim’s, too — in the Newcastle sale.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/sports/soccer/newcastle-premier-league.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

 

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:lol: Actively searching out updates from Richard Keys.

 

And I thought this thread couldn't reach any lower depths.

 

I’m happy with his silence! The question is whether that silence has any connections to reports that BeIn, Saudis and PL are in negotiations and he’s been silenced as I can’t see him shutting up voluntarily.

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Adviser to Manchester City Owner Has Role in Newcastle Sale

Ali Jassim, a close business associate of the billionaire who owns Manchester City, is serving as a broker in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to buy the Premier League team Newcastle United.

 

 

There has been an over reporting on this takeover, but does this not seen a bit murky? There are a number of individuals that have been linked to having some sort of involvement with our club and there has to be some personal gain in it. PIF for example are looking for a 4-5% yield on investment for shareholders through their investment portfolio and there seems to be a small market for people to influence the deal. When Kenyon was looking at the deal having investors that were openly advertised to get involved just seemed a bit dangerous - it was reported DiBello is due to profit from setting up the deal with PIF back in February.

 

I'm not saying Mike Ashley, Justin Barnes and Lee Charnley have been any better financially but the unknown surrounding this deal is concerning. The alternative view is perhaps this is just the way football is going - you sell the soul of the club (product) to the highest bidders and the £££ moves between small circles of billionaires...

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Adviser to Manchester City Owner Has Role in Newcastle Sale

Ali Jassim, a close business associate of the billionaire who owns Manchester City, is serving as a broker in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to buy the Premier League team Newcastle United.

 

 

There has been an over reporting on this takeover, but does this not seen a bit murky? There are a number of individuals that have been linked to having some sort of involvement with our club and there has to be some personal gain in it. PIF for example are looking for a 4-5% yield on investment for shareholders through their investment portfolio and there seems to be a small market for people to influence the deal. When Kenyon was looking at the deal having investors that were openly advertised to get involved just seemed a bit dangerous - it was reported DiBello is due to profit from setting up the deal with PIF back in February.

 

I'm not saying Mike Ashley, Justin Barnes and Lee Charnley have been any better financially but the unknown surrounding this deal is concerning. The alternative view is perhaps this is just the way football is going - you sell the soul of the club (product) to the highest bidders and the £££ moves between small circles of billionaires...

 

#1 priority is get ashley to fuck, whatever happens after that happens i couldn't care less

 

we need to come off life support

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Let's be honest here he's a total arsehole. Undoubtedly been trying to wind people up, although he denies it his tweets about Staveley being the saviour, and this Hitler thing are obvious to that. He's lost all sense of nuance and a first class bell-end.

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