Fresh information surrounding Newcastle United’s takeover has emerged this week.
Earlier this month, it was claimed that Ali Jassim, who is a close associate and financial adviser to Man City owner Sheikh Mansour, was playing the role of the broker to the Saudi Arabian consortium purchasing the Magpies for £300m.
The report goes on to suggest that Jassim had joined forces with Amanda Staveley for a second time having worked together to push through the Citizens takeover back in 2008.
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However, this has been downplayed with news coming out of Staveley’s court case against Barclays bank.
During the trial, Jassim has revealed that he now has “no involvement” in the Saudi takeover of Newcastle, and has no financial interest in it either.
This news was relayed by New York Times journalist Tariq Panja on Wednesday, he said:
Jassim says he has no involvement now in the Newcastle deal, nor any financial interest in it.
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) June 24, 2020
It is certainly an interesting development as the PCP Partners’ businesswoman worked with Jassim 12 years ago and in her search to find a credible buyer for United, their paths did cross once again.
Though perhaps it is a surprise to see him deny his role in the Magpies takeover – not that it will have any major impact on the outcome.
The decision of approval has been in the hands of the Premier League for 12 weeks now and recent claims from the Saudi kingdom pledging to tackle widespread issues of piracy in the country are thought to have boosted the chances of it going through.
It remains to be seen when such an announcement could come.