The Saudi Investment Fund is awaiting the latest measures to announce it as the new owner of the ancient English club Newcastle, which was founded in 1892, for 300 million pounds, after submitting legal documents to the official authorities in Britain to receive the leadership of the club instead of English businessman Mike Ashley, who spent 13 years searching On restoring the lost glory to no avail from the flight of the "Macbase", which fell in his reign twice in 10 years.
Newcastle United is currently 13th in the Premier League table with 35 points, before stopping because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Newcastle fans - who have been absent from the League title for 93 years - hope to arrange the team's conditions again, and to reproduce the Emirati experience, led by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, who brought life to Manchester City, to win the title The "Premier League" four times during his reign, the first of which was in 2012 after an absence of 44 years. The "City" is considered the last two versions, in addition to achieving all possible titles in England last season.
There are other temptations that prompted the Saudis to invest in the English club, the most prominent of which are: the passion of Newcastle for football, which is inhabited by 270 thousand, and the massive public presence of the matches, whatever the results (50 thousand spectators per game), and the possession of the city only one club, and what facilitated the task of Saudi attraction to Newcastle The troubled relationship in the recent period between the fans of the club and its owner Mike Ashley, due to the constant concern of landing a third time in his era, and the absence of a clear strategy for competition, as the last league championship achieved by the club dates back to 1927.
It is noteworthy that the imminent transfer of ownership of Newcastle means that Saudi Arabia will be represented by two clubs in the Premier League, as Sheffield United is owned by Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosaed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Transfer of ownership deal
The likely ownership transfer story started in the next few days, according to the British newspaper "Telegraph", from 2017, when Ashley offered the club for sale, but a buyer was not then agreed, before the Saudi Investment Fund offered to complete the deal through British businesswoman Amanda Staffeli .
The newspaper said that "the ownership of Newcastle Club will return to three parties, the lion's share of which will go to the Saudi Investment Fund by 80%, while the remaining 20% is divided equally between Staveli, and the two English businessmen, David and Simon Reuben."
She explained that "Staffeli received the file of negotiations with the owner of Newcastle Ashley over the past four months, and it was finally agreed on the sale price of 300 million pounds ($ 370 million)."
New management
British and Saudi sources suggested that the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Yasser Al-Ramyan, would assume the presidency of the club, and Okaz and the Daily Star newspapers said that the new administration also plans to appoint Al-Hilal star and the former Saudi World Cup team, Sami Al-Jaber, as a member of the Board of Directors.
It is noteworthy that Al-Jaber previously had a professional experience in the English Premier League with Wolverhampton Club, but it did not last long.
coach
As for the technical area, press reports in the two countries stated that the new administration is studying the files of four coaches to lead the team instead of the Englishman Steve Bruce, they are: former Tottenham coach Argentine Mauricio Pocitinho, formerly Newcastle coach and Dalian Weifang, currently Chinese Spaniard Rafael Bentez, coach Milan and Juventus Formerly Italian Massimiliano Alegre, former Roma and Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti. But Pocitinho will be the first choice to take over, and he will receive an annual salary of 19 million pounds, according to the Mirror newspaper.
Professionalism of the Saudis
The imminent transfer of ownership of the English club to the Saudi Investment Fund opened the door for the professionalism of Saudi football stars, and the dream of Al Hilal international player Salem Al Dossari became close to the truth with professionalism in the "Premier League", as a report linked to the British "Techno Codex" name of the player wearing a Newcastle shirt.
Al-Dossary, 28, who kidnapped the spotlight and received praises from European newspapers, during his participation with Al Hilal in the Club World Cup 2019, had previously had a professional experience with Spain's Villarreal, on loan for six months since January 2018, and appeared in the yellow shirt in one match It was against Real Madrid in the "La Liga".
Newcastle was not satisfied with Al Dossari, as the site made it clear that the English club also wanted to sign the Al Ahly Jeddah international goalkeeper Mohammed Al Owais.
Suggested stars
Compared to the ambition of the new project, bright names on the world stage European newspapers began talking about negotiations being conducted by the new administration for Newcastle with them, the most prominent of them: the French Killian Mbappe (Paris St. Germain), the Brazilian Felipe Coutinho (Barcelona) loaned to Bayern Munich, and the French Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona) , The Uruguayan Edison Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain), the Belgian Radja Naingulan (Inter Milan) loaned to Cagliari, the French Nabil Faqir (Real Betis), the Nigerian Emmanuel Dennis (Belgian club Bruges), the Englishman John McGinn (Aston Villa), and the Dutchman Nathan Aki ( Bournemouth), Wayne Lizzie Jesse Lingard (Manchester United).
The 10 temptations
1- Reproduction of the successful Emirati experience with Manchester City in England.
2- A city passionate about football.
3- The average attendance of the team's matches at home is up to 50,000.
4- Newcastle has a population of 268,000.
5- Newcastle The only team in the city is not like the multiple cities of Manchester and London.
6- Newcastle fans angry at the club owner, the businessman
British Mike Ashley due to the team's retreat.
7- The team fell to the First Division twice in 10 years at the hands of the Ashley administration.
8- Restoring the glories of the ancient club .. the last championship he achieved in 1927.
9- The financial return in the English Premier League is greater than the rest of the European leagues.
10- The Corona pandemic contributed to a significant decrease in the sale of the club.
Sami Al-Jaber is a candidate to take over as a member of the Board of Directors of the ancient English club.
Newcastle opened the door for Saudi football stars .. And the beginning with Al-Dosari and Al-Owais.