Newcastle Utd takeover ‘was controlled by Mohammed bin Salman’, leaked WhatsApp messages suggest

Former Newcastle United director Amanda Staveley warned that ‘the Crown Prince is losing patience’ as she fought to get the club’s controversial takeover over the line, according to leaked reports.

A tranche of WhatsApp messages seen by The Telegraph suggest that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, personally controlled the £305m takeover by the sovereign wealth fund.

Ms Staveley was in charge of the deal that saw British tycoon Mike Ashley sell Newcastle to the Gulf Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) in October 2021.

The high-flying financier, who once turned down a marriage proposal from Prince Andrew, left the club after selling her shares earlier this year. She has since been linked with buying a stake in Tottenham Hotspur.

But new leaks have put the takeover back in the spotlight as they suggest the crown prince, who is accused of ordering the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, had signed off on key decisions during the negotiations.

As she tried to push through the deal, Ms Staveley warned Ashley’s team in one message that “the Crown Prince is losing patience.” In another, she said the PIF governor was “trying… to convince the Crown Prince not to withdraw.”

It raises new questions about the political involvement in the deal and the truth behind the guarantees given to the Premier League to ensure the takeover would go ahead.

The Crown Prince is chairman of PIF, but the Premier League has always maintained that it has received ‘legally binding guarantees that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have no control over Newcastle United Football Club’.

On August 6, 2020, Ms Staveley is said to have summoned the Saudi ambassador to Britain to help save the deal.

“The British Saudi ambassador spoke to the crown prince this morning,” she said.

Another message from the businesswoman sent later that month read: “We must inform the Saudi Ambassador at 4pm, just as he must inform the Crown Prince.”

In April 2021, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his government was ‘not involved at any time in the takeover discussions regarding the sale of Newcastle’.

However, Ms Staveley communicated with Lord Grimstone and told Ashley’s team that the then Investment Secretary was ‘pushing behind the scenes and making it very clear that they would prefer the deal to go ahead’.

The Mail also revealed in April 2021 that Johnson said “brilliant” when told the deal was back on track.

When Newcastle initially tried to sell the club to a consortium led by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Premier League blocked the club over fears that the club would in fact be controlled by the Saudi state.

The Premier League later allowed the deal to go ahead because it provided ‘legally binding guarantees’ that the PIF was separate from the Saudi state.

Ms Staveley told The Telegraph through lawyers that she was only referring to the Crown Prince in his capacity as PIF chairman. She added that it is “as illogical as it is misconceived” to suggest that her posts raise doubts about whether the Saudi state’s guarantees of independence have been respected.

Ms Staveley said at the time that the PIF was “an autonomous, commercially driven investment fund”.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, is the non-executive chairman of Newcastle, but the leaked WhatsApp messages suggest the crown prince had the final say on the purchase.

On March 3, 2020, Ms Staveley told the sellers: The Crown Prince is losing patience – I have to reassure him that we will get there.’

On July 29 of that year, she said, “HE [His excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan] is trying to keep the deal and convince the Crown Prince not to back out.”

But in October 2020, she sent Ashley’s team a message saying: ‘No10 cannot get involved any further than what they have done so far. Gerry [Lord Grimstone] They said they have been working behind the scenes and have made it very clear that they prefer the deal to go through. They are of course very aware of the damage this has caused and the consequences for future investments.’

In other messages, Ms Staveley expresses frustration over the deal.

She says, “Jasir [Al-Rumayyan] is completely fed up with it. The price was agreed with Mike [Ashley]. Mike keeps trying to act again. If he mentions any change to the agreed price of £305 plus a cash sweep of £17.5 then this deal is over.

‘If you want more money, just sell it to someone else.

‘HE [His excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan] tries to hold the deal and convince the crown prince not to withdraw. We’re all on the same page on price – it’s up to Mike [sic] decide what he wants to do.”

Newcastle fans were delighted when Ashley eventually sold the club to PIF for £305 million in October 2021. PIF now owns 80 percent of the club, with Ms Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners owning 10 percent and property developers David and Simon Reuben the final 10 percent. percent.

A spokesperson for PIF told MailOnline: ‘In October 2021, following a lengthy investigation, the Premier League announced that the sale of Newcastle United Football Club had been completed after receiving assurances that the Government of Saudi Arabia would not control the club to have.

“The facts and circumstances underlying these guarantees, as confirmed to the Premier League at the time, remain unchanged.”

Ms Staveley told The Telegraph she was “completely confident” the guarantees had been met.

Lord Grimstone told the newspaper that in his former role he was kept informed of large-scale investment in Britain, particularly the Newcastle deal, which ‘attracted a lot of public interest’.

He added: “I made it very clear to sir [Gary] Hofman [ex PL chair] that my sole role was to facilitate the exchange of ideas between the PIF and the Premier League and that I have in no way sought to compromise the full autonomy of the Premier League in this area.”

The Premier League declined to comment.