Newcastle United entered history from its widest doors after it became the richest club in the world as soon as the Saudi Investment Fund announced its acquisition, Thursday.
English and Spanish newspapers said that the club, which plays in the English Premier League, topped the list of the richest football club owners in the world, according to the Spanish newspaper "Marca".
In turn, the British newspaper "Mirror" reported that Newcastle United has become 20 times richer compared to the Emirates-owned Manchester City club, which was considered the richest in the English Premier League.
On the other hand, the newspaper "Daily Mail" indicated that the Saudi Public Investment Fund owns assets worth 320 billion pounds, in addition to stakes in prominent companies, including "SoftBank", "Boeing", "Facebook" and "Uber".
The newspaper adds that this wealth is more than the wealth of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, who was considered the richest football club owner in the world, with a fortune of 23.3 billion pounds.
She pointed out that Paris Saint-Germain is the only club that can compare with Newcastle United after it was acquired by its new owners.
Reports indicate that the fortune of the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, is about 6.5 billion pounds, but, according to the newspaper, he is just a front for the Qatar Sports Investments Company, a branch of the Qatar Investment Authority, whose wealth is equivalent to that of the Saudi Investment Fund.
The newspaper confirms that the Qatar National Wealth Fund owns assets valued at about 220 billion pounds, including the famous "The Shard" building in London and luxury retailer "Harrods", in addition to stakes in companies such as "Volkswagen" and "Barclays".
The English Premier League Football Association gave the investment group, which includes the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the green light to acquire Newcastle United.
"The Premier League, Newcastle Football Club and St James Holdings have settled the dispute over the transfer of ownership of the club to the alliance of the "Saudi Public Investment Fund", "PCB Capital Partners" and "RB Sports and Media," the association said in a statement.
This three-way investment group made a 300 million pound ($408 million) bid to acquire Newcastle from its owner, Mike Ashley, in April 2020.
However, that controversial show was hampered last year, after a protest from the Qatari-owned channel "BN Sports", which owns the rights to broadcast the Premier League in the Middle East and North Africa. It extended its rights earlier this year until 2025 at a cost of $500 million.
In 2017, Riyadh banned the Qatari sports media group, at the beginning of the Gulf crisis when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic relations with Doha, and imposed an economic boycott on it.
With the frequency between those countries significantly decreasing last January, Saudi Arabia intends to lift the ban on “BN Sports” channels, in the midst of Riyadh also seeking to settle a Qatari arbitration lawsuit worth a billion dollars, regarding the exposure of its channels to piracy by broadcasting several sporting events, Especially the European football matches, by the channel "beoutQ", which Riyadh denies any connection with.
Newcastle have not won a major title since 1969, and the former club owner was unpopular during his 13-year tenure, during which the club was relegated twice from the Premier League.
The Saudi investment in the northern club may constitute a concern for the major clubs that often compete for the league title.
One of the most prominent clubs in England that achieved a skyrocketing rise after Gulf investors acquired its ownership is Manchester City, which has been owned since 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE.
Prior to this acquisition, the Blue Club had failed to achieve any title since 1976, but it strengthened its record with 11 titles in the last nine years, four of them in the Premier League, while still looking for the Champions League title.
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