According to The Mirror’s Simon Bird, there’s a noticeable reluctance among North West clubs to compete with Newcastle United, particularly if The Magpies tap into their owners’ immense wealth. Newcastle United, on paper, stand among the wealthiest clubs globally, with the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund holding more than £900 billion in assets. The Reuben family, owning a 15% stake in Newcastle, is listed as the UK’s third wealthiest family with an estimated net worth of just under £25 billion. This financial standing has always sparked some tension among well-established Premier League clubs.
Bird said, “Those two clubs they’re already very successful, so naturally they don’t want to be challenged. They don’t want a new boy on the block. However, the Premier League rejected they had suffered a major loss, and many legal experts agreed that City’s claimed of a victory may not be all that it seems.”
The backdrop is a recent fallout between Manchester City and the Premier League over Associated Party Transaction Rules. Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal supported the Premier League in their disagreement with City. Newcastle, however, aligned with City during this dispute. Bird elaborated on this by referencing the tribunal’s decision.
In this tribunal, amendments made in February to the original APT rules were deemed unlawful, complicating the argument for a fair market value deal. While City claims this nullifies all rules applied since December 2021, it was additionally ruled that shareholder loans are not exempt, avoiding unjust advantages via interest-free funding. Out of 23 challenges, the Premier League emphasized City’s victory in merely two cases.
Bird said, “The Mirror’s North East correspondent when asked about what the ruling means for Newcastle said: ‘In the short term it might mean not a lot. There’s going to be a period of consolidation and reflection and some huge behind the scenes arguments at Premier League level. There’s already 10 clubs on the record there backing in the Premier League stance. I don’t think they’re going to be turkeys voting for Christmas and letting Newcastle and City pump in more money but I think there might be a tweak in terms of what a fair value is, which might inflate things a little bit and loosen things up for Newcastle. That would be the hope, and then the shake down in whether soft loans from owners with Arsenal, Everton and Brighton right up there with huge loans from the owners – that could be a big hit for a lot of clubs. That’s a very interesting thing to watch as well and how quickly that’s manifested into them having to pay for the loans and how they work it out – there’s a lot for the Premier League to work out. Potentially, it’s good for Newcastle in that they might get uplifts in their own deals, but I don’t think it’s a revolution yet.’”
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