Premier League chief will not deny investigation into Newcastle owners

28 March 2023 , 16:02

857     0

Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, was speaking at a select committee hearing about football governance. (Image: PA)

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has refused to comment on whether there is a current investigation into the structure of Newcastle United’s ownership.

Appearing in front of a select committee at Westminster and in response to a question from Labour MP Clive Efford, Masters said he was unable to go into “regulatory issues” or “investigatory process.”

The query, during a two-part panel discussion on the governance of football, follows a recent court submission in the United States that casts doubt over the Toon owners’ links to the Saudi Arabian state.

In 2021 the league granted Saudi’s Public Investment Fund permission to buy Newcastle from Mike Ashley having received “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle.” In an interview with the BBC at the time Masters said that “if we find evidence to the contrary we can remove the consortium as owners.”

But documents submitted on behalf of PIF last month in a case linked to the LIV Golf franchise said that the organisation and Newcastle’s chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan “are not ordinary third parties” and “they are a sovereign instrumentality of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a sitting minister of the Saudi government.”

Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade

That has led to fresh questions around who really runs Newcastle and several clubs have sought for clarification from the league. But Masters would not be drawn on the situation.

“I’m afraid I can’t really comment on it,” Masters said. “Even to the point of saying ‘Is the Premier League investigating it?', I can’t really comment. Obviously we are completely aware and you are correct about the general nature of the undertakings we received at the point of takeover but I can’t really go into it at all.

“The only time when the Premier League comments publicly on regulatory issues is when it’s charged and at the end of the process when an independent panel decides if any rule breaches have actually taken place. The investigatory process, we don’t talk about at all.”

Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan alongside director Amanda Staveley. (Newcastle Chronicle)

Masters also took umbrage with an earlier claim from sports minister Tracey Crouch. The author of the white paper told the select committee that the Premier League was trying to kick plans for an independent regulator “into the long grass”. She said it was “disappointing and surprising” that the league appeared unwilling to engage.

But Masters rejected those comments. “I don’t recognise that at all, we have done nothing else but engage with this process. I don’t recognise the ‘kick it into the long grass’ narrative,” he said.

The Premier League has announced in recent weeks that two clubs, Manchester City and Everton, are facing charges relating to breaches of its profit and sustainability rules - but both came following closely-guarded investigations in which they would not comment on active proceedings.

Alan Smith