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A takeover that never happened.
Yesterday, the long standing offer of £300m to buy Newcastle United was withdrawn by the Saudi Arabia led consortium. However, why was this done?
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![A takeover that never happened.Yesterday, the long standing offer of £300m to buy Newcastle United was withdrawn by the Saudi Arabia led consortium. However, why was this done?[THREAD]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EePH8B7U8AIdHw4.jpg "A takeover that never happened.Yesterday, the long standing offer of £300m to buy Newcastle United was withdrawn by the Saudi Arabia led consortium. However, why was this done?[THREAD]")
Yesterday, the long standing offer of £300m to buy Newcastle United was withdrawn by the Saudi Arabia led consortium. However, why was this done?
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The origins of this go back to 2017, when Saudi Arabia cut off all diplomatic ties with Qatar. It is widely reported that the Saudis were upset with Qatar having their independent foreign policies, different from those of the rest of the Arab World.
This blockade had a direct effect on Qatar’s broadcasting channel, beIN Sports, who had to leave their operations in Saudi Arabia immediately. beIN have been the regions’s biggest broadcasting channel for while, alongside Al Jazeera (also from Qatar).
This move caused a new problem. beIN Sports have had the sole rights to the broadcast of many football leagues in the region such as PL, La Liga, UCL. This effeectively meant that people living in Saudi Arabia would not be able to view these leagues as long as the blockade stood.
In comes a different broadcaster in Saudi Arabia by the name of beoutQ. Sounds like a sensible business plan given that beIN are out of the picture completely. However it is not that straightforward.
What beoutQ end up doing is capture the feed coming in from beIN and displaying it while overlaying it with their own logo. beIN are enraged as this piracy costs them major revenue opportunity. The Saudi Arabian govt is accused of backing beoutQ.
beIN then moved to the WTO to put international pressure on beoutQ and get them discontinued. The WTO panel last month found Saudi Arabia had breached global rules on intellectual property rights by failing to prosecute beoutQ.
This is where the Premier League come in. beIN have been a long term partner of the league and have been instrumental in spreading its popularity in the Arab world. The PL put conditions on the Saudi Arabian govt to outlaw beoutQ in order to facilitate the Newcastle purchase.
However the relations between Qatar and Saudi Arabia have continued to deteriorate over time. 2 weeks ago, the Saudis put a permanent ban on beIN Sports inside the country along with fining them 10 million riyals ($2.7 million) on the pretext of ‘monopolistic practices’.
This ended up being the final nail in the coffin for the Newcastle deal. The Premier League understandably sided with their partner beIN Sports and therefore the deal couldn’t materialize. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-saudi-bein/saudi-arabia-permanently-cancels-license-of-qatars-bein-sports-idUSKCN24F1PB
However, the Saudi interest in a football club has apparently not ended. There are now reports indicating that the Saudi Arabia led consortium might now turn to Olympique Marseille to fulfill their ambitions. https://atalayar.com/en/content/saudi-arabia-interested-marseille
It will be interesting to see how that unfolds, given that beIN hold the exclusive rights to broadcast Ligue 1 as well.
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![It will be interesting to see how that unfolds, given that beIN hold the exclusive rights to broadcast Ligue 1 as well.[END OF THREAD]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EePJm_aUYAAxam4.jpg "It will be interesting to see how that unfolds, given that beIN hold the exclusive rights to broadcast Ligue 1 as well.[END OF THREAD]")
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