Saudi-Led Group Completes Purchase of Newcastle United
A group led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign investment fund completed its purchase of the Premier League soccer team Newcastle United on Thursday, moving swiftly to overcome objections to its yearslong pursuit of a place as an owner in one of the world’s most prominent sporting competitions.
The sale instantly transformed Newcastle, an underachieving club whose home in the north of England is far from the power centers of European soccer, into theoretically one of the richest teams in the world, backed by the wealth of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a vehicle that controls assets worth $500 billion.
But it also raised new questions about the economics and morality of allowing a nation state, and particularly one accused of serious human rights abuses, into the elite club of Premier League owners.
