John Nicholson, Minister of Culture, Media and Sports of the Scottish Government attacked the position of the Premier League Football Association chief Richard M. Masters over the issue of the Saudi investment fund’s attempt to acquire Newcastle, despite Saudi Arabia’s involvement in piracy of the Premier League, and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in killing and cutting The body of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Premier League board is examining the acquisition offer as part of the "Owners and Managers Test" that assesses the legal and financial eligibility of new owners to join the Premier League club owners.
British businesswoman Amanda Staffeli - with support from the Saudi Public Investment Fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, who is expected to provide 80% of the value of the deal along with 10% of the wealthy brothers David and Simon Rubin - is leading a group seeking to acquire Newcastle for about 300 million pounds ( $ 375 million) from its current owner, British businessman Mike Ashley since last April.
"Our commitment to piracy is well known," Masters said during an accountability session before the Committee on Information, Culture and Sports in the British Parliament, noting that Saudi Arabia has pledged to stop piracy of sports matches and to stop broadcasting of the "P OutQ" channel.
Masters made the remarks in his video response to John Nicholson's questions regarding the issue of the Saudi investment fund seeking to acquire the Newcastle club, and whether the crown prince in the Kingdom, Mohammed bin Salman - who stands behind the investment fund - was appropriate to place his hands on an English club under his involvement In the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to Nicholson.
Our session on the restart of sport is underway.
The Committee have questioned @premierleague CEO Richard Masters on the dangers of fans congregating, political movements in football, funding for lower league clubs and the grassroots.
Watch live 👇https: //t.co/lZCn4QYqeW pic.twitter.com/NG6icUEzok
- Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsDCMS) June 30, 2020
The session also touched on whether the British government had pressed the English Premier League to favor Saudi Arabia over other buyers.
The session was heated, as Nicholson directed a direct question to the president of the Premier League about their failure entirely with Saudi Arabia, which had blocked legal action against piracy 9 times, and whether another country had committed such piracy and tried to prevent the association from prosecuting pirates receiving support from the state .
"NB out Q (pirated) has now stopped broadcasting, and what we want to do is against the background of the World Trade Organization report and our efforts and other sports efforts is for Saudi Arabia to respond responsibly about the situation and to allow the sports (broadcast) rights campaign to protect (exclusive) rights ).
The answer did not convince Nicholson, who came back to the ball, saying, "I called you twice to answer whether there was any country in the world other than Saudi Arabia that behaved in this way? You fell into a piracy operation and now you want to buy an English club, and this is an unusual situation in which you find yourself. "
But Masters re-evaded the answer again by saying, "I don't want to repeat what I said, and I can't talk about any club deal, I'm sorry."
"It is a strange test to prevent Louis Tomlinson, the singer in the OneDirection group, from acquiring Doncaster Rovers, claiming that he was not a suitable and right person," he continued sarcastically, "perhaps (Tomlinson) was responsible for Crimes against music. "
He added, "You can see worse than this. Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the terrible one involved in killing and killing Jamal Khashoggi, who was lured to the Saudi embassy and divided into parts, you can find that he passes the (moral) test and takes possession of the club, how humiliating you are for sure."
Speaking to the British Parliament's Culture, Media and Sports Committee, Masters also answered some questions related to the Newcastle fans' suspicions and mysteries about the future of her club.
"I appreciate this state of doubt, but I cannot comment now or in detail on any particular acquisition, and in an ideal world the acquisition can happen in a clear, proper and timely manner, and sometimes things get complicated," Masters said.
He pointed out that he was bound by the terms of confidentiality in all acquisitions, and was not able to discuss the details of the process by saying, "Sometimes it is necessary to obtain information, which is a relatively rare event, I think it is very difficult to have an ongoing dialogue with the masses about a completely secret operation." .
He confirmed that the Saudi offer to acquire Newcastle United has become complicated, but he hopes there will be a result of this process soon.