Amnesty International has written to the Premier League to book a meeting with the league body over the takeover of Newcastle United.
The Human rights body has always been against the Saudi Arabia-backed consortium taking over the Premier League club. Even though the body believes that Saudi Arabia does not have regard for human rights, the Premier League gave the consortium the go-ahead to buy the club.
Recall that the Saudi Arabia-backed consortium paid about £305 million to take control of Newcastle United which the Premier League approved about a week ago.
The approval has been a reason for celebration amidst the supporters of Newcastle United who believe that the Saudi Arabia-backed consortium would make the club as competitive as Manchester City and Chelsea.
🚨Officiel – Newcastle a été racheté par un fonds d’investissement public d’Arabie Saoudite !
— Dynamit’Sports (@DynamitSports) October 7, 2021
Voici la réaction des supporters de #Newcastle après avoir appris la nouvelle.#NewcastleUnited #News #arabiesaoudite #PL #PremierLeague #rachat #Magpiespic.twitter.com/neYR0LVQp9
Recall that the Saudi Arabia-backed consortium backed out of the deal initially due to the slow nature of the negotiation. The fact that the consortium backed out caused the Newcastle United supporters club to revolt against the Premier League.
During that same period, Amnesty International cited a series of reasons why the Premier League should not allow the deal to go ahead. Some of such reasons include alleged human rights abuse linked with the Middle East country and the alleged piracy of football broadcasting rights in Saudi Arabia.
Despite Amnesty International’s effort, the Premier League decided to listen more to the supporters of Newcastle United who wanted the deal to happen.
Now that the deal has happened, Amnesty wants to meet with the Premier League to discuss proposed changes to the league owners’ and directors’ tests.
The head of Amnesty International in the United Kingdom, Sacha Deshmukh said the way Richard Masters’ led Premier League allowed the deal to scale through raised “a host of deeply troubling questions about sports washing, about human rights and sport, and the integrity of English football”.
“How can it be right that the Premier League’s current owners’ and director’s test has nothing whatsoever to say about human rights”, Deshmukh wondered.
“The events of last week will have lent even more urgency to the Government’s ongoing review of the governance of English football.
“Football is a global sport on a global stage – it urgently needs to update its own rules to prevent those implicated in serious human rights violations from buying into the passion and glamour of English football.
“We hope that Richard Masters will see that making the football’s ownership rules human rights-compliant can only be for the long-term good of the game.”
Even though Amnesty International seemed to be unhappy with the takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi Arabia-backed consortium, the Premier League might find it difficult to revoke the takeover deal. This is so because at least 90 percent of the supporters of Newcastle United are behind the club’s new owners.
The supporters are already looking forward to the number of pounds that the new owners would release for the January transfer window.
As it stands, Newcastle United supporters might not listen to the human rights fears of Amnesty over the takeover of the club as far as the new owners make Newcastle start competing for titles as soon as possible.
“You deserve someone who will look after your club.”
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) October 7, 2021
Amanda Staveley has labelled Newcastle United supporters 'the best in the world' following the club’s takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund… pic.twitter.com/UZEr9XApu1
