Saudi Arabia acquires# Newcastle #

The Saudi Investment Fund announced, on Thursday, the acquisition of Newcastle United, which is active in the English Premier League.

The fund said in a tweet on its Twitter account that "an investment group led by the fund and also includes the companies "PCP Capital Partners" and "RB Sports & Media" has completed the acquisition of Newcastle United by 100 percent.

The fund added that "all necessary approvals were obtained from the English Premier League" to complete the acquisition process, noting that the fund's governor, Yasser Othman Al-Rumayyan, will become a non-executive chairman of the club's board of directors.

And the English Premier League, in turn, announced the completion of the acquisition, but said in a statement posted on its website that it had received “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle United.”

And the American “Bloomberg” agency said, on Wednesday, that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is close to officially lifting the ban imposed on the Qatari sports group, BN Sports, in preparation for the completion of the acquisition of Newcastle FC.

The agency quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that the decision may be issued soon and does not exceed a few weeks, and the person also confirmed that the talks are still continuing, but they could collapse at any time.

The source, who requested anonymity while discussing confidential information, added that lifting the ban would allow the "BN Sport" group to start selling subscriptions to its sports content in Saudi Arabia.

And Bloomberg reported that this decision, if issued, would remove a major obstacle to Saudi Arabia's bid to buy the Newcastle United football team, which is active in the English Premier League.

The source said that beIN Sports will no longer object to the takeover if the ban is lifted in Saudi Arabia.

Bloomberg said it was not immediately possible to reach representatives from beIN Sports, the Saudi Investment Fund and the English Premier League for comment.

A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Audio-Visual Media also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2017, Riyadh banned the Qatari sports media group, which owns the rights to broadcast the English Premier League football, at the beginning of the Gulf crisis when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic relations with Doha, and imposed an economic blockade on it.

Later, beIN Sports accused Saudi Arabia of allowing its content to be pirated via a channel called beoutQ, which Riyadh denies.

In June 2020, the World Trade Organization sided with Qatar in its dispute with Saudi Arabia, considering that Riyadh had not fulfilled its obligations to respect beIN's intellectual property in the face of the illegal broadcasting platform.

And "AFP" quoted another well-informed source as saying that "Riyadh is seeking to settle a Qatari arbitration lawsuit worth one billion dollars regarding the exposure of its channels to piracy by broadcasting several sporting events, especially European football matches, by the beoutQ channel."

The kingdom's failure to take action against beoutQ was a major reason for the Premier League's decision last year to block a 300 million pound ($370 million) bid to buy Newcastle United by a group that includes the Saudi Investment Fund.