Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 3:01 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 15:05

Newcastle United expects to come into the hands of an investment fund of the Saudi Arabian government within 48 hours, various English media report. The Premier League is currently considering the acquisition worth £300 million, or €353 million. Amnesty International strongly opposes and calls on the English league to block the takeover.

The Saudi Arabian consortium has been trying to acquire Newcastle United for a year and a half. A conflict with beIN Sports was the reason that the deal could not be finalized. The Qatari channel group owns the Premier League broadcasting rights in the Middle East, but was blocked in Saudi Arabia for four years. The latter country then illegally broadcast the Premier League matches via pirate network BeoutQ. Now Saudi Arabia has lifted the blockade on beIN Sports and is negotiating compensation of more than 1 billion euros.

The Premier League now also has a guarantee that the Saudi state will not be involved in the day-to-day running of Newcastle United. The investment fund that the club wants to take over for eighty percent is under the supervision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Amnesty International therefore strongly doubts the promises about government intervention from Saudi Arabia.

The human rights group urges the Premier League to reject the takeover of Newcastle. Amnesty believes the top English league should take into account the ‘terrible’ human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and calls for a screening for executives and club owners, emphasizing their relationship to human rights.

Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty’s British branch, the Guardian know that the deal “is a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to sportingly whitewash their horrific human rights history with the glamor of top football.” Deshmukh points, among other things, to the events surrounding the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in 2018 by a Saudi assassination squad, which has been acknowledged by the Saudi crown prince. “Instead of admitting those involved in serious human rights violations into English football, we propose that in future owners and administrators be screened for human rights issues.”