Newcastle United’s new owners have revealed that prior to purchasing the Magpies from former owner Mike Ashley, they were offered the chance to take out a 30 per cent stake in another Premier League.
According to PIF and Newcastle United non-executive chairman, Yasir Al-Rumayyanduring, who gave an interview in the Middle East, not only did the fund purposely select the Magpies, but their aim is to increase the Magpies’ valuation to a whopping £3.5bn.
“Why did we choose the English Premier League? Because it is the greatest league that exists in the world,” Al Rumayyan told Radio Eight. “No other league competes with it. Any team from the 20 can beat the strongest team.
“Before Newcastle we had offers from Italy, France and also the UK. One UK club offered us 30 per cent for £700m and without any management.
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“Amanda Staveley brought Newcastle to us and said ‘we like it so much, we would like it to be with you’. The Reuben family came and said ‘we would like to be partners in the investment’. So they have skin in the game.
“We bought the team for £350m, compared to 30 per cent of the unnamed club) which is £700m. Then you have Chelsea who sold for £3.5bn.
“So my aim now is to make Newcastle go from £350m to £3.5bn, that’s 10 times the money. If we had bought Chelsea, for example, how much would it bring us in profit?
“Newcastle United is the only club present in one city, meaning there is no bigger club than Newcastle, “There are one million in the area and they are all present.
“We have 52,000 seats in the stadium and tickets are always sold out.”