Those who followed the Saudi Kingdom’s deal to buy Newcastle United tried to find out the value of the real deal which was not announced by the Saudi government, thus reflecting that the stubbornness of the Crown Prince to buy the club was not for the diversification and development of the economy.
The story of buying Newcastle began during a meeting on board the Sarrin yacht, at the invitation of Amanda Staveley, the British businesswoman, in November 2019. The meeting was attended by Yasser Al-Rubyan to discuss the possibility of the Soverign Fund to buy the club. Amanda was surprised that details the meeting, including the obstacles to completing the deal were published on the media.
These two main obstacles included the disgraceful human rights reputation of Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman, especially after the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the massive arrest campaigns for the kingdom’s youth and elites of all currents, which is the reason that was widely used to create a public opinion to reject the deal.
The second reason was KSA’s support for the pirated channel (BeoutQ) for major European leagues, to which the (beIN sports) network has exclusive rights in the Middle East, as this is considered as a support for property rights thieves, in violation of all laws. The support here is support from a state and not with the support of a person, which means that KSA does not recognize rights and does not work according to the mechanisms and systems of states.
In April 2020, international newspapers revealed that bin Salman sent a message to British Prime Minister Johnson warning him that relations between the two countries would be damaged if his government failed to intervene to correct the wrong Premier League decision not to allow the Newcastle club to be acquired.
The scandal of the Saudi crown prince and his ignorance did not stop at the message only, but rather in his talks with Johnson via WhatsApp application, in violation of political norms, which prompted the opposition to request an investigation with Johnson.
In November 2020, and after understandings with the State of Qatar, the Saudi Crown Prince paid one billion dollars in compensation to Qatar for his support for his broadcasting rights-stealing agency, and the deal took place.
The Saudi pro-government media welcomed the purchase of the club and the celebrated the actions of the Crown Prince, but Reuters ruined their celebrations after stating that buying a football club is a trivial investment for the Saudi Investment Fund.
The real valueto buy the club amounted to one billion and 415 million dollars, after the Kingdom willingly paid the compensation owed to the State of Qatar, in order to pass the deal, as a settlement of the beIN sports issue, according to which the deal was allowed to pass according to what was announced by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. This only confirms that it is a losing deal, and it is not an investment for the benefit of the Kingdom and its people, but it is just a puppet that bin Salman clings to and he wanted to take it at all costs, whether financial or political.
