The former Sky Sports presenter said the British Government wants it to happen, and he stressed that Saudi Arabia will also have to make some serious moves to settle their ‘rights’ dispute with Qatar.
That hasn’t happened, though, with Saudi permanently cancelling the license of beIN Sports in their kingdom and fining them £2 million on Tuesday.
KSA accused the Qatari broadcaster of abusing their dominant position through several monopolistic practices, and their move has definitely dealt a blow on the takeover.
No announcement is expected from the Premier League today, and Keys took to Twitter to explain why that won’t be happening:
Events this week are the most likely reason why we shouldn’t now expect an announcement today on the Saudi Govts bid to buy Newcastle. Join the dots yourselves.
— Richard Keys (@richardajkeys) July 16, 2020
The Athletic’s George Caulking revealed that the buyers weren’t expecting Saudi to take such a drastic move.
“I went to the people that I speak to and asked the questions, and the one thing that they said was that this isn’t something that they were expecting to happen,” he said on The Pod on the Tyne podcast.
“This isn’t something that PIF were pushing for and asking for to happen.”
It will be interesting to see what happens going forward, but Newcastle fans are already frustrated after 16 weeks of talks.
The Premier League continues to run its Owners’ and Directors’ Test, and it remains to be seen when they will finally deliver a verdict.
The Saudis haven’t helped matters following their latest move, as there is no way to legally watch the Premier League in their country right now.
