Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman is said to have urged Boris Johnson to step in and intervene in the proposed takeover of Newcastle United.
The Daily Mail reports that the bumbling Prime Minister was warned by the Saudi Arabian prince that anglo-saudi relations would suffer if the proposed buy out failed to materialise.
Bin Salman was apparently furious with the Premier League’s stance on the matter amid questions of whether the club would be state owned.
In reply, Johnson sent his aide Lord Eddie Lister to investigate but then the Saudi-led consortium officially pulled out afterwards, clearly still raging at the perceived injustice in the decision made by the governing body of the English top flight.
In an absolutely mental year at St. James’ Park, this story is about as strange as it gets and goes to show just how big of a deal the takeover would have been.
In a year dominated by covid-19 and the governments response, it is mental to think that little old Newcastle United was on the mind of the PM but it is a shame that the deal couldn’t be pushed through. If it had of been, we would have been shot of Steve Bruce by now.
Both the PM’s camp and the consortium have distanced themselves from the story, with the league denying any lobbing from the government’s side with the buyers also reiterating it.
Considering the main issue is supposed to be the level of involvement from MBS, it is hardly surprising that they have put feelers out that it is not true and Shields Gazette journalist Liam Kennedy put this update out to his twitter followers.
❌ Last night consortium sources were saying this story was not true, now the PM’s official spokesman denies lobbying/interference in PL decision-making process on #NUFCTakeover.
Make of this what you will, #NUFC fans… The circus continues 🎪https://t.co/h8WlJdnbQ5
— Liam Kennedy (@LiamJKennedy23) April 15, 2021
I guess if true, it shows that the Saudis do desperately want this takeover and that is surely a good thing.
Over a year on from the start of this saga, it is still raging on without closure and news stories regarding it have picked up, hopefully it is not just white noise and there is something to the rumours but for now we should sit tight and concentrate on our battle to stay in the division.