Controversial move by PL owners designed to hinder Newcastle's transfer business set to fail

The petty Premier League bosses who set out to obstruct Newcastle United in the January transfer window look to have failed with their plot.

Today, the Premier League owners held a shareholders meeting with a vote on the agenda to implement a temporary rule to block associated party transactions, specifically loan deals, while they came up with a more permanent solution.

Essentially, it was a vote designed to stop Newcastle United from being able to loan any of the big-name stars who moved to the Saudi Pro League over the summer after reports that the Magpies were working on a loan with Al-Hilal for Ruben Neves.

The rule needed 14 of the 20 Premier League owners to vote for it to go through

Neves move to the Saudi Pro League for £47million in the summer, turning down the chance to stay in the Premier League with Newcastle.

Newcastle brought in Sandro Tonali who was subsequently banned for 10 months after being caught up in a betting scandal. The media quickly moved to link Newcastle with Neves once again implying that loan deal could be struck in January.

Soon after this proposal was put forward which would have required 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs to vote in favour.

Given how many clubs have associated parties, it really all came down to which of those clubs would be petty enough to cut off their own nose to spite their face. Manchester City have a vast network of clubs now so there's no way they'd have voted it through. Manchester United are about to be joined at the hip with OGC Nice thanks to Jim Ratcliffe, so they were probably out too.

We wonder which two of the following six could possibly have set this whole thing up

In fact, only six Premier League clubs don't have associated parties: Brentford, Burnley, Fulham, Liverpool, Luton and Tottenham. It's probably not too hard to spot where the pressure is coming from there.

It makes sense then, that Craig Hope is reporting on X that the rule looks to have been voted down.

So, Karim Benzema on loan in January, anyone? You know, for the fume.