“One thing that they said” – George Caulkin reveals what he’s been told by Newcastle’s buyers

Newcastle United’s prospective takeover was hit with a bombshell earlier this week after Saudi Arabia banned beIN Sports from broadcasting in the country.

It effectively means that there is no legal way to watch the Premier League in a nation whose public investment fund is trying to purchase one of its member clubs.

That, of course, being the Magpies.

The saga has rumbled on for some four months and this is merely the umpteenth twist in the tale but this one is particularly worrying as one of the biggest issues with the deal has been surrounding piracy.

Banning the MENA region’s only official broadcasters hardly does any favours.

This emerging development was discussed on this week’s ‘Pod on the Tyne‘ where George Caulkin revealed the reaction from the Saudi consortium involved in the £300m takeover of the northeast giants.

He said:

“I went to the people that I speak to and asked the questions. And I mean, the one thing that they said was that this isn’t something that they were expecting to happen. This isn’t something that like PIF were pushing for and asking for tap tap and that this is old, this is an old case, it’s four, it’s four years old, and it’s tidying something up, but it leaves it now leaves beIN without a foothold in Saudi Arabia, again. The argument was that if PIF didn’t know about it, then it was a kind of a good thing but I honestly don’t understand that.”

Caulkin went straight to the prospective owners and asked questions and claimed that the “one thing” they said was that this news wasn’t something they expected at all.

How damaging and if it is at all to the takeover of United still very much remains to be seen, though these comments only go to show that PIF aren’t making the decisions in the country and thus, really are a separate entity to the government.

Either way, this process has already taken four months to reach this point and with the season over in two games’ time, it’s on the PL to come to a final decision as soon as possible.