Saudi bid to buy Newcastle United FC sparks controversy

By Karim El-Bar

LONDON (AA) - A £300 million Saudi Arabia’s bid to takeover English Premier League club Newcastle United has provoked criticism from human rights groups as well as Qatar-based sports broadcaster beIN Sports.

The current owner of Newcastle United, British billionaire Mike Ashley, put the club up for sale in 2017; he has owned the club since 2007.

Were the deal to go forward, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), would hold an 80% of the club’s share. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the chairman of the PIF.

- Piracy and diplomacy

BeIN Sports said that Saudi Arabia runs a pirate TV network that illegally broadcasts Premier League matches inside the kingdom, and urged Premier League clubs should protect their intellectual property and revenue streams.

The pirate Saudi network is called beoutQ and the Premier League previously called on the kingdom’s state satellite broadcaster Arabsat to stop allowing beoutQ using its frequencies to broadcast the games. Arabsat has denied that beoutQ uses its frequencies.

The pirate broadcasts started in 2017 when Qatar and the its neighboring Gulf states became embroiled in a diplomatic spat; the transmissions have not been stopped.

BeIN chief executive Yousef al-Obaidly wrote to the chairmen of Premier League clubs, saying: “The legacy of the illegal service will continue to impact you going forward. When the Premier League season recommences in the coming months, all of the league’s broadcasters’ content will continue to be readily and illegally available via the IPTV streaming functionality on the beoutQ set-top-boxes which were sold in significant quantities in Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA region.

“Furthermore – given the crippling economic effect that coronavirus is having on the sports industry – this is all happening at a time when football clubs need to protect their broadcast revenue the most.”

He accused Saudi Arabia of the “facilitation of the near three-year theft of the Premier League's commercial rights - and in turn your club's commercial revenues - through its backing of the huge-scale beoutQ pirate service.”

“It is no exaggeration to say that the future economic model of football is at stake,” he said.

Al-Obaidly also wrote to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, saying: “To the extent the reports about the acquisition of NUFC are correct, we consider it essential for the Premier League to fully investigate the potential acquirer of the club, including all directors, officers and other representatives from the KSA PIF or other Saudi Arabian entities involved in, or otherwise providing any financing for the acquisition.

“There appear to be several reasons why such an investigation is being called for by other parties; our request is purely based on Saudi Arabia's past and present theft of your and your member clubs' intellectual property rights.”

- Khashoggi and ‘sportswashing’

Human rights group Amnesty International also criticized the proposed deal.

In a separate letter to Masters, the group’s U.K. Director Kate Allen said: “The Premier League is putting itself at risk of becoming a patsy of those who want to use the glamour and prestige of Premier League football to cover up actions that are deeply immoral, in breach of international law and at odds with the values of the Premier League and the global footballing community."

She accused Saudi Arabia of engaging in “sportswashing,” and highlighted the October 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, saying: "The Crown Prince (Mohammed Bin Salman) has been using sporting events and personalities as a means of improving the Kingdom's reputation following the grisly murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi - widely believed to have taken place with his approval.”

“Such positive associations with sporting events also distract attention from Saudi's appalling human rights record, including the imprisonment and torture of women human rights defenders,” she said.

Local media reported that despite the controversy, the deal is expected to go ahead nonetheless.