It didn't take too long for Newcastle United's majority owners to make their move after the Premier League made changes to their Associated Party Transaction (APT) rules.
Manchester City fought the Premier League in court over the APT rules deeming them anti-competitive and therefore unlawful.
It's a case that Manchester City won making it 1-0 to the Champions, but the Premier League have 115 shots to fire at the club and we are waiting to find out the outcome of that case.
While City won their case against the Premier League regarding APT rules, the laws weren't scrapped entirely which is what they, and indeed clubs like Newcastle, we hoping for, instead they were just relaxed and made to be compliant with UK law.
Despite it not being the huge victory Newcastle were hoping for, the club's 85% owners, The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) wasted little time in pumping money into the club via a new sponsorship deal.
The PIF's name appeared on the digital advertising hoardings around St James' Park during the 3-0 win over Wolves last night, and while the details of this sponsorship agreement haven't been released, we're sure that the PIF will have pushed the limits of what is allowed.
Our owners have been pumping money into the club of late, as reported by The Shields Gazette, by issuing shares to increase revenue. A total of £87 million has been injected into the club in the form of shares in the last 12 months.
These moves should at least dampen fears that the PIF are losing interest in Newcastle United, a fear which reared its head again lately when a report suggested there were those inside the club who aren't convinced that the PIF will cough up for a new/expanded stadium.
Fortunately, other club sources closer to the board still believe that it will happen.
It would certainly be a strange move to pull out of a stadium expansion/build now after all the work that has already gone into feasibility studies, not to mention fan engagement and promises.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
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23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
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24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
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24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
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24 | 16 | 43 |
5 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
7 |
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24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
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24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
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24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
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24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
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24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
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24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
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24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
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24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
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24 | -17 | 27 |
16 |
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23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
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24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
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24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
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24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
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24 | -36 | 9 |