SPOTLIGHT ON STAVELEY

A  look at the Newcastle United ownership's  front woman.

The sudden departure of Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi from Newcastle United has caused various reactions on Tyneside. The board of directors now consists of Chairman Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan, Jamie Reuben, Abdulmajid Ahmed Alhagbani and Asma Mohammed Rezeeq. 

Yasir O. Al-Rumayyan is also a Governor of the PIF and Chairman of Saudi Aramco, as well as being a minister in the Saudi government.

Abdulmajid Ahmed Alhagbani is Head of MENA Securities Investments at PIF and Vice Chairman of SELA Sport, a sponsor of the club.

Asma Mohammed Rezeeq is a Saudi investment professional.

But what was the real role of Staveley at Newcastle United ? Andrew Page from NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing put the spotlight on Amanda Staveley in this well researched and in depth article from our fanzine, HAILSTONES IN THE DESERT.

Written by Andrew Page

Amanda Staveley has now marked more than 2 years as a part owner of Newcastle United, but her involvement with the club stretches back far longer. She had been attempting to spearhead a takeover of the club as early as 2017, and she has said that it was after attending a Newcastle match against Liverpool in that year that she “fell in love” with the club. [1]

This takeover attempt was not the first time she had come to the attention of the national media’s sportswriters, as she had already been involved in attempted takeovers at Liverpool, as well as the successful Abu Dhabi takeover at Man City.

And even before that, she’d featured in the front of the newspapers rather than the back pages, creating headlines through her relationship with Prince Andrew, turning down a marriage proposal from him in 2003. However, the pair remained close, and when her husband and NUFC co owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi proposed to her in 2011, she told reporters that she contacted Andrew to let him know: “He [Andrew] is really happy for me… we’re mates, so of course I wanted him to know.”[2] The Mail reported that she was spotted in the Royal Box with him at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as recently as December 2016, more than eighteen months after court documents were made public alleging that Prince Andrew had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was a minor.[3] Her initial claim to fame came in 2008, when she helped save Barclays from a government bail-out by helping orchestrate a £3.5 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour. This came shortly after she had acted on behalf of Thaksin Shinawatra during the sale of Man City to the same man.[4]

In August 2011, The Financial Times related that she knew Colonel Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam (who had been issued with an ICC arrest warrant in June 2011).[5][6] NATO had begun a military intervention in the country five months earlier in March 2011, launching a bombing campaign that marked the beginning of Libya’s descent into a 7 year civil war and a humanitarian crisis that had not yet abated.

In spite of this, Staveley was able to view Libya’s situation positively. On October 31st 2011, 11 days after Colonel Gaddafi’s brutal death, she was quoted in The Times:

“Libya has undergone a true revolution, an absolute revolution, the likes of which we have not seen for a very long time. Libya will be the next Iraq and all the opportunities that come with that.”[7]

Previous associations with Gaddafi’s family apparently now counted for little, and becoming the next Iraq was evidently a good thing in Staveley’s eyes –she had told the Financial Times that she herself was “very interested in Iraq. Love Iraq.”[8]

Her forecast for Libya was largely proven to be correct: it’s very easy to draw parallels between the destruction that took place in Libya with the carnage in Iraq, and both of these catastrophes did indeed open up opportunities for some people, albeit not for the vast majority of both countries’ populations.

The main reason Staveley seems to have been holding forth on the future of the Middle East in 2011 was because of her interest in Yemen. She held the management contract for SabaFon, the Yemeni telecoms group, which was controlled by opposition leader Sheik Hamid al-Ahmar, and she used her media interviews to advocate for the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, opining that Sheik Hamid al-Ahmar was the “humble leader” Yemen needed, and “the international community has to rid Yemen of Saleh”.[9][10] Although she also acknowledged that the likelihood of Yemen spiralling into civil war was high.[11]

When a Financial Times journalist told her that the Yemeni protesters calling for the fall of the Saleh regime look at Sheikh Hamid and his al-Ahmar family as part of the same corrupt elite, Staveley said that this was because the president’s people are briefing against her client.[12]

In the event, Staveley more or less got her wish, and Saleh was forced to resign in November 2011, under pressure from opposition forces supported by al-Ahmar’s family. Her prediction about the possibility of conflict also proved to be correct: Yemen’s new administration was rejected by the Houthis, whose forces took over the capital Sanaa in 2014, and have remained there ever since, while Yemen became the scene of civil war and one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes, which has largely been caused by the Saudi government that Staveley is now happy to represent at NUFC and elsewhere.

Iraq was ranked as the 5th most corrupt country in the world on the Corruption Perception Index in 2009 after enduring years of violence, and similar conditions were being created in Libya and Yemen in 2011, but this does not appear to have dampened Staveley’s enthusiasm for seeking out business opportunities in them.[13] On one level perhaps it is no surprise that she sought to use her contacts with spectacularly corrupt Gulf Monarchs to put together a takeover.

While Staveley already had a public profile even before becoming involved in football, it seems that she still may have felt the need to embellish her credentials slightly when bidding to complete a takeover of NUFC. It had been widely reported that Theresa May had used Staveley’s home as a base for her 2016 leadership campaign, and in 2018, The Guardian wrote that “the claim has been reported again, as supporting evidence of Staveley’s credibility as a substantial financier with connections at the highest levels.”

But a Conservative party spokesman contradicted this, telling The Guardian that while “a very small number of conversations took place in Amanda Staveley’s home the campaign was not based there”.

When The Guardian asked how the claim that the campaign had been based at her home had come to be reported following interviews with Staveley, her representative said he did not know. The obvious conclusion is that she exaggerated her ties to the Prime Minister to look like a more credible buyer.[14]

This episode reveals a tendency to leak information to the media that was flattering to herself, and this behaviour had first led to anger on former NUFC owner Mike Ashley’s behalf when she arrived to meet him unannounced at his favourite curry house in December 2017, and was then photographed leaving by paparazzi who clearly knew they would be there. The ensuing media scrummage hugely annoyed Ashley.[15]

It seemed Staveley hadn’t learned her lesson when The Times reported that Ashley was further irritated in January 2020 when news of a possible Saudi backed deal was reported by the Wall Street Journal, along with information on Staveley’s involvement. The Times article stated that Ashley was so incensed by the leak that he was considering pulling out of the deal.[16]

It had been a similar story during her attempts to buy Liverpool. The Athletic have reported that when she was trying to orchestrate a takeover of the club led by Dubai International Capital (DIC) in 2008, she was “ringing up the reporters of the Liverpool Echo at all hours”, and The Mail reported that when details of talks leaked, Liverpool’s current owners called the deal off.[17] They are understood not to do business with anyone who uses Staveley as the point of contact.[18]

It was this sort of media attention accompanying her failed bids for football clubs that likely contributed to her being described as a “tyre kicker” and a “waste of time” by Mike Ashley in 2018.[19] Nonetheless, she did eventually lead a successful takeover of the club – the 2nd high profile takeover of a football club she has been involved in.

Journalists have found it difficult to weigh up her character, with one long-read piece in The Athletic entitled: “Amanda Staveley, Newcastle’s first lady who nobody can agree on”.[20]

One person who is perhaps as well placed as anyone to make an assessment of her is Justice Waksman, the High Court judge in the unsuccessful damages claim she brought against Barclays Bank in 2021. He said she was a “tough, clever and creative entrepreneur”. He also described her as a “reliable” witness, but he accepted Barclay’s submission that she may have a ‘tendency to exaggerate’.[21]

The Athletic spoke to an anonymous source at Liverpool that described her as a “mirage”.[22] In 2011, The FT had reflected “that [her willingness] to “do anything for a client”… reflects a remarkable drive to succeed and make money”.[23]

A “willingness to say anything” might be an accurate description too. In 2010, a couple of years after her role in the Abu Dhabi takeover of Manchester City, she showed the BBC journalist Nick Cosgrove her wardrobe containing a number of Manchester City shirts, and he reported that she “enjoys wearing them from time to time”.[24]

But by 2017, when she was attempting to lead a consortium to take over Liverpool, the Liverpool Echo wrote that she was “understood to be a Reds fan”, and she later confirmed this in 2023 at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, when she said that “obviously everyone knows I was a massive Liverpool fan”.[25][26]

This contrasts with one source the Mail spoke to, who indicated that she didn’t have a preference for any team – saying that this was “just investment” to her, while another suggested she may have a liking for Leeds United.[27]

Any allegiance Staveley felt to Liverpool, Manchester City, or anyone else appeared to be firmly in the past by 2020, and she has described the moment she became fully committed to NUFC. In a tearful interview with The Athletic journalist George Caulkin, in July 2020 when the takeover looked to have collapsed, Staveley said:

“I fell in love with Newcastle. I fell in love with the passion, the fans. It was just this incredible club”.

Later in the interview, her husband added “We’ve suffered a loss financially, as well, but what is heartbreaking and really upsetting — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart… is what this will mean for the fans.”

A more cynical person might suggest that the main reason Staveley was sobbing her eyes out may have been because of all the money she and her husband seemed to have lost, but that wasn’t the assessment that Caulkin made. While he acknowledged that “There is a financial hit for the businesswoman”, he opined that “what really aches is how close they came.”[28]

On the takeover’s completion she told supporters that “you are the best fans in the world”, which is exactly what she had said to Liverpool fans just a few years previously.[29]

She’s gone on to repeat this sentiment a number of times, to widespread approval from Newcastle supporters and others. Alan Shearer has also praised the new owners, saying that “the communication with fans has been welcome”, and this is something that’s also been echoed by fans.[30]

I couldn’t really agree. Staveley has certainly spoken to the media more than the previous ownership ever did, but she hasn’t been able to set out any sort of long-term vision, and much of what she says is lacking in any substantial detail or is outright questionable.

In March 2023, she told the Financial Times’ Business of football summit “we have a business plan based on a five, ten, fifteen-year timeline” which is about as vague as you can get when it comes to setting out a timescale.

There wasn’t much evidence of any sort of plan at all when the takeover was completed in October 2021. It took 13 days to remove Steve Bruce from the manager’s post, while Ashley’s Managing Director Lee Charnley remained at the club for another 6 weeks.

A Director of Football wasn’t confirmed until December, and even then Dan Ashworth wasn’t able to begin work until the beginning of the new season. A Chief Executive only arrived in July 2022. Appointing a manager also proved difficult, with Staveley’s habit of briefing journalists off the record causing issues again. The Mirror reported that Unai Emery had rejected Newcastle’s advances after reacting with fury when news of the approach was leaked, and he was also concerned about the club’s chaotic strategy.[31]

As part of that strategy football advisor Nicky Hammond became involved in helping the new ownership negotiate their first transfer window, and there’s been conflicting reports about what his actual role was. The Times reported that Hammond had expected to be the club’s de facto chief executive during the January transfer window, but had his tenure cut short by Christmas.[32] After the transfer window, Staveley’s husband Ghodoussi said that Hammond had been brought in to give them a “sense check”.[33] Hammond described himself as having an advisory role. He also said his brief time at NUFC had been “very challenging”.[34]

Sports journalist Duncan Castles reported that one way or another, Staveley ended up doing a lot more of the work than had originally been intended, but most fans would say that she didn’t do a bad job at all in spite of her lack of experience, as both the appointed manager and the new signings exceeded expectations.[35]

Staveley obviously thought highly of her own performance as well. In April 2023, The Mail on Sunday reported that her company had lifted nearly £1m out of the club in “football consultancy fees” for the period between the takeover in October 2021 and June 2022.[36]

I’m sure many Newcastle fans don’t begrudge her it at all. But while the chaotic first few months may have been successfully negotiated, there is still much mystery surrounding the owners’ long-term plans for the club and city, and what communication there is often appears contradictory and vague.

One example of this came in the recent Amazon Prime documentary, when Staveley said that on the takeover’s completion “everybody wanted to talk about human rights and they didn’t want to discuss anything else. So we worked really hard to address concerns people have.”[37]

In reality, I can hardly think of anything Staveley has done to address these issues, save for claiming in her interview with The Athletics’ George Caulkin that “our partner is PIF, not the Saudi state. The separation issue has been resolved.”[38]

This complete misrepresentation was allowed to go unchallenged by Caulkin, and was repeated by several parties including Staveley until it was later contradicted by none other than the Saudi Public Investment Fund Governor and Newcastle Chairman Yassir al-Rummayan, whose lawyers argued that there was no court in the U.S. with jurisdiction over them, because they are part of the Saudi government.[39]

One of the only other times I can remember Staveley touching on the issue of human rights abuses by foreign governments in football clubs was when she was one of the few people to show sympathy for Roman Abramovich, after he was forced out of Chelsea in the wake of Russian invasion of Ukraine. Staveley described Abramovich’s predicament as “sad” and “not particularly fair”.[40]

Aside from that I cannot recall Staveley addressing human rights issues at all, and she has left manager Eddie Howe to flounder alone in the face of questions that she would surely be better placed than him to answer, particularly given that she seems to be on familiar terms with some of the Middle East’s most prolific human rights abusers.

The MP for Newcastle Central Chi Onwurah has told me that she has been asking Staveley for a meeting for more than a year now, but to no avail. Onwurah did not tell me what she wants to discuss with Staveley. It may have been to discuss human rights issues - it could also have been to press her for further details about the ownership’s plans for investment in the city and the region.

In the emotional July 2020 interview with George Caulkin, Staveley had claimed that “we had massive plans to invest in the city, in housing, everything.”[41]

Pat Ritchie, Newcastle City Council’s chief executive at the time offered to meet the Premier League and work on a compromise to help complete the takeover, saying that “members of the consortium spear-heading this deal had made a clear long-term commitment to the city to help drive growth and regeneration”.[42]

So far there’s been very little evidence of large-scale investment in the region, the prospect of which saw politicians from across the region speaking out in favour of the takeover. Some parties have made efforts to link Reuben brother’s city centre developments with the football club, but none of these have been funded by PIF. And while the club’s relatively meagre spending on the local food bank, Great North Run, and women’s football is all very welcome, it is hardly the transformative spending that had politicians across the North East publicly encouraging the takeover.

One key piece of infrastructure that you would have expected to be a priority for the ownership is a new training ground. In February 2022, Staveley and her husband told The Athletic that they were “looking at sites” for a purpose-built, world- class training ground, but warned that it “will probably take three years, maybe a little bit more”.[43]

A further update came in April 2022 with the Shields Gazette reporting that the club were “looking at” a site on the north western edge of the city.[44]

And then on 5th July 2022, things had progressed to the point where Mail journalist Craig Hope was able to identify a possible site next to the racecourse to the north of the city, which is owned by NUFC minority shareholders the Reuben brothers. Hope reported that a local firm of architects had completed impressive drawings for this location.[45]

But by April 2023, things seemed no further forward, with Staveley telling The Chronicle that the club were still “looking at” sites.[46]

And then in October 2023, Luke Edwards reported in The Telegraph that it “could be at least another decade until the club move into a new facility”.

A further update was provided by Dan Ashworth in November 2023, who said that “if we have the opportunity to acquire some land and a site that might be beneficial for the club and might help us move to the next level then of course we’ll look at it. But that doesn’t mean we definitely will.” [47][48] The latest news on this came from Mark Douglas in the I newspaper in January 2024. He wrote that “sites are being scoped for a huge new training campus.”[49]

If The Telegraph’s timescale is correct then it’s fair to question whether the training ground will ever be built at all, especially in light of Staveley’s previous assertion that PIF have a “5, 10, or 15 year plan”. Fairly strong rumours on possible sites for a training ground continue to circulate locally, so there is clearly some intention to put this in place, and you would guess the board will probably finalise something at some point. But as yet the club have been unable to announce anything concrete, and things don’t appear to have progressed at all in more than 18 months. If they are having difficulty starting work on this development, are they going to build a new stadium or bring transformative investment to the region?

News on a new stadium or developing St James’ Park has also been vague and contradictory. A new stadium was explicitly ruled out in February 2022 when Ghodoussi said: “it would be like tearing your soul out”, but he confirmed that they would “definitely look at” expanding the stadium.[50]

In spite of that, new CEO Darren Eales recently refused to rule out a new stadium at a fan’s forum in November 2023, although he also said that a “formal process” on “stadium feasibility” had been started, and they are “looking at” what will be possible. Whether the emphasis will be on increasing capacity or cramming in more corporate hospitality remains to be seen.

Staveley has also been vague on another important potential development for the club’s future. On March 2nd 2023, she told Financial Times Business of Football summit that:

“We’ve looked at multi-club. Whenever you look at multi-club. you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right fit. That’s at a quite early stage, we’re just looking.”

As usual, the media managed to obtain some details of apparent developments shortly after Staveley’s comment. On 30th March The Chronicle reported that the club are: “believed to have held talks with US-based firm 777 Partners.[51]

On 11th May The Guardian related that Newcastle were linked with KV Oostende, and a delegation from PIF had visited the club in April. Apparently, the delegation went on to watch Standard Liège, who are also owned by 777 Partners. The Guardian added that PIF had sounded out several clubs in Portugal and held talks with the French club Dijon.

Reading these reports gave the impression that the very early stages of a European based multi club model were being put in place, so it came as something of a surprise when news broke the following month that the PIF had taken over the 4 leading clubs in Saudi Arabia. [52] Was this “the right fit” that Staveley had talked about?

For the first time ever, the club’s chairman also controls 4 other football clubs in addition to NUFC. This development was met with silence from Staveley and the rest of the board – their views on the implications of the new model for NUFC remain unknown. Perhaps they were as surprised at the news as everyone else? The multi-club model now in place bears no resemblance to the proposed structures that were being outlined by the media between March and May 2023. There was almost nothing in the press suggesting that PIF are pursuing a European multi-club model with NUFC at its apex for some months, until CEO Darren Eales was asked about the possibility in January 2024. He said:

“That’s something we would continue to look at but not something that comes to mind at the moment. Fairly preliminary at the moment.” [53]

Is it possible that Staveley just isn’t as close to her partners at the Public Investment Fund as she might like people to think?

We first got a hint that this might be the case at the end of January 2022, when The Times reported that Mike Ashley was bringing legal action against Staveley, in the process revealing that she hadn’t been able to provide the funds necessary to purchase her 10% stake in the club. This was extremely awkward for Staveley, because she had explicitly denied borrowing money from Mike Ashley, and her representatives had also said that a loan she had arranged with the Reuben brothers was related to ‘working capital’ and not to buying the 10 per cent stake. She had told reporters that she had obtained the funds by “selling a hotel in New York for £60m or so.”

This legal action stated that this wasn’t the case at all. According to the documents Ashley submitted to court, she’d borrowed £30.5m from the Reuben brothers, and then Ashley lent her a further £10 million on 7 October 2021 as she was “unable to meet the advisory, legal and other costs and commissions” associated with the takeover. Ashley was now claiming that the loan conditions have been breached.[54]

According to him, one of the terms of the loan was an agreement not to “make any statement or comment which is derogatory or otherwise in bad faith in relation to the other party or otherwise bring the other party into disrepute”. He was claiming that this had been breached when Staveley had said that she was ‘looking forward’ to taking down the Sports Direct signs.

Ashley now wanted early repayment. Given that the loan was due to be repaid in 2 years anyway, and given how long court proceedings can last, it seems possible that Ashley was just as interested in publicly embarrassing Staveley by revealing details of her finances as he was in getting his money back early. Repayment to Ashley was made by Staveley on schedule in October 2023 after the 2 years elapsed.

But Ashley has decided to take things further, and he’s now claimed that Staveley ‘misapplied’ part of the loan proceeds. In the process, he’s revealed that £2m of the £10m loan to Staveley was then passed on to Instagram influencer Carla DiBello. Ashley has alleged that Staveley said DiBello didn’t play “any substantive role” in the deal, and was only paid “due to her relationship with the head of PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan”.[55]

Staveley’s defence doesn’t dispute that the payment was made to DiBello, but instead states that she was entitled to this money as a commission payment for her role in brokering the takeover. The payment followed an agreement reached with between DiBello and Staveley in December 2019, the month before details of the proposed takeover first appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

In February 2020, the same paper explained that DiBello had a close relationship with al-Rumayyan. Although this relationship had frustrated some PIF officials, DiBello has been able to help foreign companies “gain access to top Saudi officials”. In return she is then compensated by either the firm seeking investment or other actors in the potential deals. If the details revealed in the latest stage of Ashley’s legal action are correct, it is likely that this was the method Staveley’s PCP company used to get access to Al Rumayyan and PIF to put together the takeover.[56] DiBello was pictured sitting with Newcastle directors at a Newcastle game away to Arsenal 2 months after the takeover’s completion.

Some obvious questions to ask Staveley were:

Why did she agree to terms that are so restrictive that Mike Ashley can dictate what she can and cannot say?

Has she agreed anything else with Mike Ashley – particularly of interest given that Ashley claimed discussions were held regarding him maintaining a stake in the club.[57]

And of most interest - why didn’t she just borrow the money from her business partners at the Public Investment Fund?

Staveley’s party wouldn’t offer any comment on this to The Times, but on 26th February, when The Athletic’s George Caulkin asked why she needed Ashley’s money, Staveley said:

“We incurred costs that were for the benefit of the whole consortium. Mike wanted very much a deal done very quickly and that meant we made a decision which meant he could close quickly. We took that burden on.”

Caulkin also offered her and her husband a chance to “clear things up” in relation to the money borrowed from the Reubens, but they would only send him the following statement:

“PCP’s investment in Newcastle United involved corporate financing, as is common in transactions of this nature. However, PCP’s investment in the club was not financed by any personal loan or liability incurred by Amanda Staveley.”

Obviously neither Staveley’s comment or her statement really clarify anything or explain what she was talking about when she said she’d funded her stake in the takeover by selling a hotel. She gave a further ‘no comment’ on the matter to The Athletic in June 2022, and as far as I can see that was the last time she has been asked about the issue publicly.[58]

After negotiating a chaotic start, Staveley has certainly managed to oversee a lot of changes at the club. She’s successfully implemented small scale changes to the stadium and the existing training ground. She has built up the women’s team, appointed numerous staff, overseen a raft of commercial deals, and a whole new recruitment team has been put in place which has quickly shown signs of success (although we are told that all transfers must be signed off by Chairman Yassir al-Rumayyan).[59] In these areas she has looked like the “tough, clever and creative entrepreneur” that Justice Waksman described.

But when it comes to developments that require significant amounts of capital – such as a new training ground, transformative regional investment, a potential new stadium, a multi-club model, and even the takeover itself - she has appeared vague, flatfooted, uninformed, and out of the loop, projecting an image consistent with the “mirage” that the source at Liverpool depicted. Aside from the new Saudi-based multi-club model, no visible progress has been made in any of these areas in the last 2 years.

Perhaps this contrast can be partially explained by considering Staveley’s role within the club. George Caulkin described her and her husband as “Newcastle’s asset managers… overseeing day to day matters.” They are the minority shareholders at NUFC, and their percentage stake has been diluted further from an initial 10% to 7.6%, and then down to 6.0% following injections of capital, making them even more minor figures at the club.[60]

The real decision-making power lies with majority shareholders PIF, and club chairman and governor of PIF, Yassir al-Rumayyan.

In the recent Amazon Prime documentary, Al Rumayyan explains that he has “zero” involvement in the day to day running of the club, saying “I am the chairman of many things. If I’m going to be involved on a daily basis then I may as well fire the management and sit in their position. The chairman will look at the strategy”.

The “many things” he chairs include the Saudi state oil company Aramco, and Saudi Arabia’s largest mining firm. Since taking over Newcastle he’s added 4 other football clubs and LIV Golf to the sporting ventures he oversees. He is also responsible for developing NEOM, the futuristic city that is central to bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plans.

In spite of all this, Louise Taylor in The Guardian confirmed that he has to sign off all decisions, and his involvement in the transfers of Bruno Guimares, Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isaak and others has been documented by the media.”[61][62]

I’m sure many Newcastle fans will see the direct involvement of someone so high profile as reassuring evidence of PIF’s commitment to the club. But al-Rumayyan can’t possibly view NUFC as one of his top priorities, and this could lead to problems in itself.

A senior Newcastle figure told The Athletic “things happen more quickly when the chairman’s around”, which obviously leads you to question how slowly some things might happen when he is not around, which is the vast majority of the time. The Athletic reported that the appointment of Darren Eales as Chief Executive was delayed by the difficulty in finding space in Al-Rumayyan’s diary for interviews to be held.[63]

Maybe it’s natural for some Newcastle fans to believe that the initial success the team have enjoyed since the takeover is likely to keep al-Rumayyan engaged. It’s hard to think of anything more likely to impress him than dismantling Qatar’s PSG team 4-1, with al Rumayyan watching on from the director’s box, which is what transpired on 4th October earlier this year.

But al-Rumayyan’s business interests are so vast and widely spread that even successes like this could be completely outweighed by external concerns. Three days after that match, on 7th October, Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to attract international investment and achieve economic growth suddenly became far more complicated.

On 7th December, Saudi Arabia announced for the first time that some parts of the Vision 2030 were going to be delayed.[64] And in April it was revealed that the project at Neom was to be significantly scaled back. Saudi officials had originally said that The Line at Neom would eventually cover 170km, but reports now say that it is expected that only 2.4km will be completed by 2030.[65] It seems just as probable that NUFC’s importance to al-Rumayyan has lessened since the PSG game rather than grown.

Now that the club is part of PIF, Newcastle’s future is tied to the success of the wildly ambitious Vision 2030 plan in a way that remains opaque, and I haven’t really seen explored.

The description of his own role that al-Rumayyan gave in the documentary is consistent with how he described it in an open letter to fans on the day of the takeover’s completion:

“Our job is to look at the bigger picture – so we will be working with the rest of the Board to set the overall strategy, monitor how that is progressing and determine the changes we need to make.”[66]

But what that strategy actually is remains something of a mystery, perhaps to both Staveley and outside observers. It should be remembered that the idea for the takeover was first put to al-Rumayyan by Staveley during a meeting on Mohammed bin Salman’s mega yacht.[67]

Did she have an overall vision for the future of the club that she put to the Saudis? And who is responsible for that vision now, aside from the chairman? Staveley has failed to set out anything coherent. Was she ever in a position to promise regional investment to local politicians to encourage them to support the takeover?

And when al-Rumayyan says “we”, who does he even mean? On the takeover’s completion, Staveley said that “PIF are very passionate about Newcastle and desperate to get here. I want people to really get to know them.”[68]

Is it not time that this happened? Even Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has had little interaction with them, saying in March 2023 that his direct dealings with al-Rumayyan and PIF are “very, very low”.[69]

It is not as if there is no one for the Newcastle fans to get acquainted with. Abulmajeed Alhagbani has been a Newcastle director since February 2023, and he is apparently Head of PIF’s Securities Investments Department.[70]

He made an extremely brief appearance in episode four of the Amazon Prime documentary – the only time I’ve ever seen or heard him. Also appointed as a director in February 2023 was Asmaa Mohammed Rezeeq. The Mail reported that she is a global investments professional with PIF.[71]

How many Newcastle fans even know that there is a Saudi woman on the board of directors? What role do these directors play in setting out and implementing the “strategy” as described by al-Rumayyan?

The documentary also showed some online board meeting featuring two PIF employees who have never been announced as having any designated role at the club. Jacobo Solis is PIF’s Head of Europe Direct Investments, and is heard insisting on a ceiling for Anthony Gordon’s fee and then signalling his approval for the Sela shirt sponsorship deal, after questioning commercial director Peter Silverstone on how Champions League qualification would affect the deal’s value.[72]

Sulalman Al Beayeyz is apparently a director at PIF. He asks Amanda Staveley “if there’s anything they can do from an infrastructure point of view to support the club” in the event of European qualification. Given that the meetings seemed to take place around January / February 2023, they may have been acting on a temporary basis after Majad al Sarour resigned in December 2022 and before Alhagbani and Rezeeq started in February. If that’s the case (and who really knows if it is?), then Newcastle’s supporters were kept entirely in the dark about their involvement.

Majad al Sarour had been a director at the club for just seven months when he resigned, and the reason for his departure was never explained either. His resignation was only reported in the media more than 2 months after it actually happened, when it was revealed in a Companies House filing.[73]

He had kept a very low profile as well but did make limited attempts to engage with supporters -appearing in one of the post-match squad photos and thanking supporters at the end of the 21/22 season. He also thanked the UK ambassador Prince Khalid bin Bandar, son of the notorious Prince Bandar bin Sultan al Saud, for attending a match.[74]

The ambassador is married to Lady Cuthbert, the Duke of Northumberland’s niece, and it is possible that this connection led to the use of the Duke’s residence, Alnwick Castle, as the venue for a board meeting covered by the documentary. Its been reported that the club’s board met here again in January 2024. Athletic journalist Adam Crafton reported that the ambassador had requested an update on the takeover bid from Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, which Cleverley provided to him in May 2020.[75] Does the ambassador ever exercise any other influence at NUFC?

The ambassador is not the only high-profile member of Saudi Royalty to associate themselves with the club. The Saudi Sports Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud, son of the infamous Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, followed the club’s twitter account back in April 2020.[76] He has exerted some influence over events at St James’ Park when he ordered a complete media blackout when the Saudi national team faced Costa Rica in Newcastle in September 2023, preventing head coach Roberto Mancini and his squad from speaking to the press.[77]

Turki bin Salman, the crown prince’s younger brother, attended last season’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester United wearing a black and white scarf.[78] You would imagine that either of these 2 men’s views would carry considerable weight should they ever decide that they’d like some input at St James’ Park.

And of course, the club’s ultimate owner is the man al Rumayyan reports to, his neighbour, the chairman of PIF, Mohammed bin Salman. We know he took at least some interest in the club when it was reported that he texted Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanding that the takeover was allowed to be completed.[79] If the club ever caught his attention again it could have an enormous impact in any number of ways.

The lack of transparency behind decision-making at Newcastle United seems entirely consistent with how the PIF run everything else in their control. The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) assesses Sovereign Wealth Funds on transparency, governance, and accountability metrics. In 2019 the PIIE ranked Saudi Arabia’s PIF as amongst the least transparent, least accountable, and with the least credible governance structures in the world.

Human Rights Watch have highlighted that “it is impossible for Saudi citizens to seek information on or involvement in PIF decision-making, or to critique or seek accountability for abuses related to the PIF.”[80]

So perhaps it is not unexpected that Newcastle’s majority owners have said so little to supporters. There is little doubt that the Saudi Public Investment Fund could deliver on all of Staveley’s promises should they want to, and their continued silence does not mean that they won’t. Man City’s Abu Dahbi owners only began work on the Etihad Campus three years after completing their takeover of the club.

But it is surely unacceptable that fans and politicians have been induced to campaign for a takeover on promises of transformative regional investment, yet there is no sign of this investment, and no explanation has been provided. North East politicians who were adamant that the takeover would provide immense benefits for their constituents have a duty to press Staveley and the other Newcastle directors on this issue.

Is there not a role for fan groups here too, including the Supporter’s Trust? The Trust’s stated aim is “to develop strong lines of communication between members and the club.”

They carried out a survey of its members in April 2020, asking what the number one priority for the new owners should be. Investment in the squad was the main priority, but improving relations with supporters and the wider community was the 2nd most important issue for respondents. The summary of the survey said that “many comments were received regarding wanting to see a clear and precise indication of exactly what the prospective new owners planned for the club, their aims, ambitions and how they intend to deliver them.”

A minority of respondents to the Trust’s survey disapproved of the takeover altogether, while there were others who supported the deal but had some reservations about the owner’s human rights record. [81] A survey in The Athletic shortly after the takeover’s completion indicated that 83% of NUFC fans who responded had concerns around Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues, and prior to the takeover the Supporter’s Trust had made a promise to “hold the owners to account” on human rights.[82][83]

But there seems to have been very few efforts made to engage with the club on either their overall strategy or human rights. Instead, the Trust’s focus appears to be lobbying the club on concerns around ticketing issues, seemingly with little success.

In March 2023, the Premier League launched the “Fan Engagement Standard”, and in response Newcastle launched their own Fan Engagement Plan in August 2023, which included plans to hold “monthly meetings with individual supporters and groups including Newcastle United Supporter Trust (NUST).”

The club said that the Fan Advisory Board would consist of nine members who will assist and advise the club’s leadership team on areas including “the club’s vision and strategic objectives.”[80] Surely this is the ideal forum for the Trust to table questions to Yassir al-Rumayyan, Asmaa Mohammed Rezeeq, and Abulmajeed Alhagbani, on both human rights issues and their overall long-term plans for the city and club?

Failing that, the questions could be aimed at Amanda Staveley instead, but as yet she has shown little indication that she is able to answer them.

Despite that, her company continues to lift money out of the club – recent accounts show that it was paid another £312,000 for advisory fees in the year to July 2023, in addition to the £937,500 that was paid in 2022. Staveley has also continued to arrange loans involving the club during her stewardship – she borrowed £659,000 in August 2023 and then another £600,000 of the club’s money in November 2022 to cover legal fees, while her company loaned £625,000 from the club.[81]

When you also consider that she is a minority shareholder with no previous football experience, it is worth asking what she does in return for this money, and why she is continuing to play such a prominent role, given a CEO has been in place since July 2022.

The most obvious answer is that she is supposed to be the more acceptable face of the takeover, while the real owners remain in the background. One example of this strategy in action came when the club officially brought the women’s team under its control on 21st August 2022. Staveley told the media that “it was so important to all of us as custodians of this amazing club to bring the women to the heart of Newcastle United.”[82]

These words might have seemed slightly more incongruous if they’d come from then director Majad al Sarour, particularly as Leeds student Salma al-Shehab had been jailed by the Saudi state for 34 years over critical tweets just 8 days earlier. Presenting Staveley to the press instead seemed to nullify any negative coverage.

Fans have proven to be susceptible to this obfuscation as well, perhaps willingly so. One former member of the Supporter’s Trust board told the media: “The fact that the majority owners are not especially visible is important. That’s been helpful for a lot of fans trying to dissociate the club from the ownership.”[86]

Far from hoping that “people really get to know” PIF, as she claimed on the takeover’s completion, the main purpose of Staveley’s continued role at the club seems to be to obscure the reality of who the club’s owners really are. Fans mustn’t lose sight of who controls the club – nobody else has.

In the meantime, Staveley’s business career continues to be full of highs and lows. After taking credit for playing a part in LIV Golf’s merger with the PGA, her company PCP Capital Partners was issued with a winding up petition by a Greek shipping magnate, who claims that she owes him in excess of £35m.

It remains to be seen what this amounts to, but it wouldn’t be Staveley’s first brush with bankruptcy.

In 2008 she was revealed to be making payments towards an Individual Voluntary Arrangement following a failed internet venture.[87] You suspect that she will emerge from this latest drama relatively unencumbered - the same cannot always be said for the many business projects she has involved herself in.



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[2] Royalty declined: An affair to remember | Uae – Gulf News

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[10] Lunch with the FT: Amanda Staveley

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[49] https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/newcastle-copy-man-utd-blueprint-ffp-fears-2869844#:~:text=i%20

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[51] https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-multi-club-stave-

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[52] Saudi Arabia’s PIF takes over Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli - BBC Sport

[53] https://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/newcastle-united-transfers-ceos-two-

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[54] Amanda Staveley ‘didn’t have the funds’ to buy Newcastle stake, claims Mike Ashley (thetimes.co.uk)

[55] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/14/amanda-staveley-reject-claim-paid-instagram-influenc-

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[56] https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/2/11/kardashian-pal-raises-eyebrows-brokering-access-to-sau-

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[57] Mike Ashley claims he held face-to-face talks with Yasir Al-Rumayyan over retaining 10 per cent Newcastle

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[58] https://theathletic.com/3489814/2022/06/20/mike-ashley-claims-he-held-talks-with-newcastle-owners-

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[59] https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2023-08-10/we-are-newcastle-united-documentary-five-things-

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[60] https://x.com/christoph_21/status/1622678746099593216?s=46&t=0mDPo3GtZStNjxvvsM6ykA

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[61] ‘We have targets’: Newcastle facing unique January transfer challenge | Newcastle United | The Guardian

[62] Yasir Al-Rumayyan: A life of power, privilege and risk for golf’s most powerful man - The Athletic

[63] Yasir Al-Rumayyan: A life of power, privilege and risk for golf’s most powerful man - The Athletic

[64] Saudi Arabia Admits for First Time to Delays in Some Vision 2030 Projects | OilPrice.com

[65] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-05/saudis-scale-back-ambition-for-1-5-trillion-desert-

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[66] ‘You can expect ambition’, New Toon supremo Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s open letter to Newcastle United fans -

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[67] How a Saudi-led consortium won control of Newcastle United (ft.com)

[68] Amanda Staveley interview: ‘Why do Keegan and Shearer get so little recognition from our club?’ - The

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[69] Eddie Howe’s response to fresh Newcastle United ownership scrutiny | The Northern Echo

[70] https://x.com/PIF_en/status/1717224476025180219?s=20

[71] Newcastle’s £305m Saudi takeover facing fresh scrutiny amid documents filed in LIV Golf case | Daily Mail

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[72] Newcastle have shown Liverpool and Chelsea the way with transfers - and they aren’t done yet (inews.co.uk)

[73] Saudi Director Majed Al Sorour Leaves Newcastle United Board - Bloomberg

[74] Majed Al Sorour makes Newcastle United promise after witnessing ‘incredible’ win over Arsenal (shieldsga-

zette.com)

[75] Newcastle’s Saudi takeover: The UK government’s emails revealed - The Athletic

[76] The latest Twitter follow of the Saudi Arabian Sports Minister will interest Newcastle fans - Chronicle Live

[77] Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sport imposes a media BLACKOUT after their defeat by Costa Rica at St James’

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[78] If the source of Newcastle’s spending makes you uneasy, keep talking about it - The Athletic

[79] Saudi crown prince asked Boris Johnson to intervene in Newcastle United bid | Saudi Arabia | The Guardian

[80] https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/09/13/testimony-senate-subcommittee-investigations

[81] https://nufctrust.co.uk/files/pdf/nufc-trust-member-survey-april-2020-results-report.pdf

[82] https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52550879

[83] Newcastle United survey: Ashley reign ‘disastrous’, fans want Conte and concerns over Saudi Arabia’s human

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[84] https://www.nufc.co.uk/media/79761/fep_august-2023.pdf

[85] Amanda Staveley’s stake in Newcastle changes as payments show up in club accounts - Mirror Online

[86] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/sports/soccer/newcastle-manchester-united-cup-final.html

[87] Staveley paying back debt to bank under IVA | Barclays | The Guardian

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