Newcastle United’s rumoured takeover news has been spreading like wildfire in the world of football.
What we know so far
Reports suggest that current owner Mike Ashley is rumored to sell the football club to billionaire Sheikh Khaled in a £350m deal.
Ashley and Sheikh Khaled seem to have agreed on a contract and have signed and submitted it to the Premier League.
Mike Ashley, who bought the club back in 2007 has put it up for sale for most of his ownership years.
The club stakes were previously being bought by Amanda Staveley and then Peter Kenyon but the deals couldn’t go through after entering the due diligence stage.
However, the 61-year-old founder of the Bin Zayed group seems to be the most likely candidate to buy the Magpies.
The managing director of Sheikh Khaled’s organisation, Midhat Kidwai has stated that the “terms have been agreed”.
“We can confirm the representatives of Sheikh Khaled are in discussions with Mike Ashley and his team about the proposed acquisition of Newcastle United”, said Midhat.
“We view it as an honour to have the opportunity to build on the strong support, history and tradition of the club. We have agreed terms and are working hard to complete the transaction at the earliest opportunity.”
The Abu Derby
Amid takeover news, the Emirati tale has taken a whole new turn.
Sheikh Khaled belongs to a royal family in Abu Dhabi and happens to be a distant cousin of Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour.
Nick Harris, a financial journalist has claimed to have studied the family tree of the two billionaires and found in his research that the grandfather of Sheikh Mansour was murdered by the grandfather of Sheikh Khaled back in 1926.
Harris also claimed that Khaled is outside the main wing of the royal family and doesn’t possess as much financial power as his distant cousin.
And here is the family tree in detail, with thanks to @_jonathandc (and others in the UAE who confirmed the research) for putting this together. pic.twitter.com/52SMl6rgO9
If the rumored takeover does indeed takes place, then Premier League viewers can expect to add another juicy ‘derby’ on their list from next season.
Unlike Khaled’s takeover pursuit of Newcastle United, the buyout of City by his cousin Mansour was done in utmost secrecy.
According to reports, Sheikh Khaled had also attempted to buy Liverpool F.C. last year for a record estimate of £2 billion which was rejected by the club owners.
After the news of the buyout have started doing rounds in media, the Newcastle United fans are finding it difficult to contain their excitement taking into account the type of success seen by Manchester City ever since the buyout.
The successful takeover of Newcastle would result in the entry of new giants with a whole new tale of rivalry in the Premier League.
However, any new owner would now have to pass the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test and stick by the rules of financial fair play which would discourage the free spending habits of the Emiratis.
The club is yet to reach the given stage of agreement but is expected to finish the buyout process pretty soon.
