Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Five days. That's how long it took after the Newcastle United takeover for a fearful executive to email the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others to request that notice be given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions.
This senior figure was later cross-examined when successfully challenged the validity of the original APT rules and openly admitted that the buy-out. It left former owner furious.
"Because of the wealth of PIF, obviously there was a lot of push-back from other clubs," she recalled after 18 clubs voted the regulations through. "I think there was a fear that we would have an unfair advantage."
Hence why a number of Newcastle's rivals also expressed concern to the Premier League after Al-Ahli signed Allan Saint-Maximin from the Magpies a couple of years ago. However, the deal was found to be of fair market value.
Clubs may have thought Newcastle would look to take advantage after a proposal to block-party related loan deals failed a few months later, but the Saint-Maximin deal has proved the only piece of business that the black-and-whites have carried out with another PIF-owned side.
It has instead been Newcastle's rivals who have truly felt the benefit of the Saudi Pro League splurge in a PSR world, whether it was the £113.7m Aston Villa banked from Al-Nassr and Al-Ittihad for Jhon Duran and Moussa Diaby; the £79.6m Manchester City received from Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal for Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and Joao Cancelo; the £50m Fulham banked from Al-Hilal for Aleksandar Mitrovic; the £47m Wolves got from Al-Hilal for Ruben Neves; the £40m Liverpool fetched from Al-Ittihad for Fabinho; the £40m Brentford commanded from Al-Ahli for Ivan Toney; or the £33m Chelsea obtained from Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal for Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly.
Newcastle's majority owners are also the official partner of the Club World Cup while the PIF-owned sports investment company SURJ Sports Investment (SURJ) acquired a minority stake in DAZN, the competition's official broadcaster, earlier this year.
Why is that noteworthy? Well, Chelsea have already made more than £40m after reaching the last eight of the U.S. tournament and there is a further £15.3m at stake if the Blues beat Palmeiras in the quarter-finals. Manchester City, meanwhile, have taken home £37.8m just for getting to the last 16 and there are further prize pots on offer if Pep Guardiola's team progress.
Manchester City and Chelsea just so happen to be the sides who finished in the two places directly above Newcastle last season and these clubs have not just been rivals on the field.
Chelsea, after all, have gone head to head with Newcastle in the transfer market - recruiting Tosin Adarabioyo and Liam Delap in the last 12 months - and the Magpies to the signing of Joao Pedro.
The fact that Premier League sides like Chelsea have profited from PIF-backed clubs or competitions serves as a reminder that Newcastle are just one part of the fund's huge portfolio.
However, there is a reason why CEO Darren Eales previously stressed that Newcastle were 'one of their highest' investments in terms of profile and interest.
"They are 100 per cent committed to Newcastle," Eales said a few months ago. "That’s the exciting part - there is no change in terms of where we want to get to.
"The one thing we would say is that we have to do that within the regulatory regime that is there. There is frustration by that PSR constraint. If it wasn’t for that, we could spend more on the team and accelerate our progress on the pitch.
"At the moment, the way we approach from ownership down - and everyone is aligned - is that we maximise our revenues and with that we spend to the max we’re allowed to, so we incur those losses of £105m over three years to give Eddie and the team the best possible players on the pitch that he wants. We’re in alignment in terms of how we build that squad.
"It’s frustrating because we want to go A to B in three years, but we can’t do what was done in the past. The days of an [Roman] Abramovich or Man City in the early days, you just can’t do that anymore.
"You can front load the spend, but you have to pay the piper. We have to be strategic."
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