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Post by rugbytoffee on Jul 19, 2020 14:04:17 GMT
Back in April, Newcastle owner Mike Ashley first agreed to sell the club for £300m to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).
But amid mounting opposition from MPs and human rights groups, what should have been a smooth process, has been heavily disrupted.
It remains unclear when the Premier League will finally announce their decision and the lack of clarity has angered fans and Steve Bruce. That will be a relief to Bruce, who is drawing up a list of transfer targets for the summer window. "I know in my own mind but you don't always get what it's in your mind," he said.
"We'd like Ronaldo in our minds! There will be more meetings next week and that will continue into the summer. Our job never stops.
"Our aim is to improve the squad and whether it's one of the three loan lads let's see what the demands are." Should the takeover get approved, a strong finish to the season will strengthen Bruce's chances of staying in the job for next season.
Newcastle visit Brighton on Monday evening and Miguel Almiron, their top scorer this season with eight goals, says winning the final two games of the season are key.
He told Sky Sports: "There have certainly been a lot of games since the restart and I think now you're just starting to see the signs of tiredness and fatigue, which is normal after so many months break.
"You don't normally have such a long break in the middle of the season. "After you stop playing and you're not on the field for a couple of months, I think it's normal that the team drops off a little bit in form, that tiredness has played a role. We're still working hard in training and during games to finish well.
"In terms of the last two games, irrespective of what Steve [Bruce] might say, players motivate themselves - it's our job to do that first and foremost. Just stepping out onto the field is enough motivation to do well for the shirt.
"I think in the next two games, it's about taking them seriously, playing properly and being calm and relaxed and trying to play our football with the [relegation] pressure off but still they're still competitive games so we want to do well.
"Steve Bruce wants us to finish well because in a way, that is the best way to prepare for the start of next season, going into pre-season with a pretty quick turnaround where we hope to get a good start next time around.
"All in all, it has been a decent season. We're mid-table, obviously we always want to be higher than we currently are if that's possible and maybe go even further in one of the two cups we were involved in, but I think this squad has done very well. We started OK but I think we want to have a good pre-season, start even brighter next season if we can and take the positives into the next season."
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Post by rugbytoffee on Jul 30, 2020 16:35:42 GMT
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has withdrawn its bid to buy English Premier League club Newcastle after the process was stalled by concerns about piracy by the kingdom and human rights complaints.
The league has spent four months considering whether to approve the £300 million takeover that would have seen Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund gain an 80% take in the northeast club.
The British-based Reuben brothers and financier Amanda Staveley were planning to each buy the remaining 10% stakes to end the ownership of retail entrepreneur Mike Ashley.
"We have come to the decision to withdraw our interest in acquiring Newcastle United Football Club,'' the consortium said in a statement. "We do so with regret, as we were excited and fully committed to invest in the great city of Newcastle and believe we could have returned the club to the position of its history, tradition and fans' merit.
"Ultimately, during the unforeseeably prolonged process, the commercial agreement between the Investment Group and the club's owners expired and our investment thesis could not be sustained, particularly with no clarity as to the circumstances under which the next season will start and the new norms that will arise for matches, training and other activities.''
The Premier League never gave an indication on the progress of the stalled takeover and when it would make a decision.
"As often occurs with proposed investments in uncertain periods, time itself became an enemy of the transaction, particularly during this difficult phase marked by the many real challenges facing us all from COVID-19,'' the consortium said.
Amnesty International asked the league to consider blocking the bid because the fund was overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and said he has been involved in a "sweeping crackdown on human rights.''
The takeover bid was also complicated by the World Trade Organization recently ruling Saudi Arabia failed to stop a broadcasting operation pirating sports coverage -- including of Premier League games -- and blocked moves to shut it down in a proxy of the Gulf economic and diplomatic dispute with Qatar.
The Qatar-owned beIN Sports network, which is banned from operating in Saudi Arabia, holds the Middle East rights that are being pirated by beoutQ.
The Premier League wrote to the Office of the United States Trade Representative in February to highlight the lack of legal action taken by Saudi Arabia over beoutQ despite complaints.
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Post by evertontillidie on Aug 5, 2020 12:08:19 GMT
It's not going to happen.
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Post by rugbytoffee on Apr 8, 2021 10:54:34 GMT
The Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) have unveiled a fundraising campaign designed to buy a stake in the club on behalf of fans from across the world.
It's not hard to find a Newcastle fan who has been less than impressed with the club's business under current owner Mike Ashley, whose penchant for penny pinching and poor decisions has driven supporters to numerous protests in recent years. A common criticism towards Ashley is that he does not listen to supporters and treats the club too much like a business. So to try and fix that, NUST have put together the 1892 Pledge and are encouraging fans to donate with the end goal of buying a stake in the club.
It's noted that the plan is not to buy in to Ashley's ownership, which they expect to be over before they reach the minimum required amount of £3m in donations, but instead to buy a stake alongside any new owner to ensure they do not find themselves in this kind of mess again.
NUST hope to give fans a firm voice in the decision-making of the club and right some of the wrongs created by the Ashley regime. "We think football fans - and Newcastle fans - don't realise how much power they have and how much influence they have," former Trust chairman and initiative leader Alex Hurst told the Newcastle Chronicle.
"We think that when the club is sold the fanbase needs to start representing itself in terms of how the club is run. The only way to guarantee that is to own some part of the club so what we're trying to do is to set the fanbase up to genuinely represent itself at ownership level to make sure the club is run on behalf of its supporters rather than what we have at the minute.
"We're asking the fans to pledge what they can - ideally on a monthly basis but one-off pledges are absolutely fine, people can dip in and out but the best thing for us is monthly donations. Whether it's a £1, a five, a tenner, £40, we don't want people to give us anything they'd miss. "This is supposed to be an affordable, long-term project. That's the key for us: it's long-term. It's not going to be a month, or six months or a week, it's going to be as long as it takes. If Ashley's here for another five years, we'll do it for that long.
"What we want is for fans to pay into the Trust to give the Trust a chance of buying a share in the club when it gets sold or stepping in to save it should it fall through the leagues."
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Post by rugbytoffee on Jul 19, 2021 18:23:40 GMT
The arbitration hearing between Newcastle United and the Premier League over the club's takeover has been adjourned until early 2022.
The adjournment relates to "issues with the disclosure of evidence", which is understood to involve both parties.
The news will be of huge disappointment to Newcastle fans, who hoped a £300m Saudi Arabia-led takeover would lead to the end of owner Mike Ashley's reign.
The two sides failed to agree who would retain ultimate power at the club. It was also unclear if it would involve the state-run Public Investment Fund.
A joint statement from Newcastle and the Premier League said: "The parties attended a hearing today in the case between Newcastle United and the Premier League.
"The main hearing of the arbitration has regrettably now been adjourned until early 2022 due to issues with the disclosure of evidence.
"The parties will be making no further comment at this time."
Newcastle have been owned by Ashley since 2007.
The Magpies owner was unhappy with the Premier League's failure to reach a decision over a proposed Saudi Arabian-backed takeover, which collapsed last year.
The club's arbitration claim centres on the way the Premier League applied its owners' and directors' test when assessing a bid.
Newcastle asked for the claim to be heard in public and said it had "nothing to hide" from arbitration.
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