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Newcastle manager Eddie Howe says he has “not sought any assurances” after fresh questions were raised about the ownership of the club.
The Premier League approved the takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) after receiving “legally binding assurances” that the Saudi state would not control the club.
But in a US court case this week, Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan has been described as “a sitting minister of the government” with “sovereign immunity”.
Human rights group Amnesty International has since urged the Premier League to “re-examine the assurances” made in the Newcastle takeover.
“It was always stretching credulity to breaking point to imagine that the Saudi state wasn’t directing the buyout of Newcastle with the ultimate aim of using the club as a component in its wider sportswashing efforts,” said Peter Frankental, the group’s UK economic affairs director.
The Premier League has declined to comment.
Howe says he has had “very open communication” with “various people connected to the board” since being appointed in November 2021, a month after the PIF’s takeover.
“But my conversations with them are all football-related,” he added on Friday. “At no stage has it ever gone political.
“That’s not my area, I don’t want it to be my area, I want to concentrate on how I can improve the team.
“Now obviously, if I felt there was a time I needed to ask a question, I could. But I haven’t done that.
“For me, my job is training the players. The minute I deviate from that is the minute I go into dangerous waters.
“The focus comes on me because I am sat here every week. It’s not a conversation for me to brief on these matters because I’m not qualified to do it.”
The statements have been made by lawyers representing LIV Golf, owned by the PIF, which also has a controlling stake in Newcastle.
Why was the PIF’s takeover approved?
The PIF initially withdrew from its takeover bid for Newcastle in July 2020 as a result of an “unforeseeably prolonged process”, before the deal was revived.
The takeover was only approved in October 2021 after the Premier League received “legally binding assurances” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not have any control over the club.
The dispute had centred over who would have controlling influence at Newcastle, and would therefore be subject to the league’s owners’ and directors’ test.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters told the BBC in November 2021 that if his organisation found evidence there was state involvement in the running of Newcastle “we can remove the consortium as owners of the club”.
However, lawyers representing LIV Golf, also owned by the PIF, have said during US court proceedings that Al-Rumayyan is “a sitting minister of the Saudi government”.
A San Francisco court has approved the PGA Tour’s request to include Al-Rumayyan and the PIF as defendants in its lawsuit against LIV and ordered them to produce documents in the case.
However, the PIF is challenging the order, arguing the fund and its governor Al-Rumayyan “are not ordinary third parties subject to basic discovery relevance standards”.
A court document reads: “The order is an extraordinary infringement on the sovereignty of a foreign state that is far from justified here.
“They are a sovereign instrumentality of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a sitting minister of the Saudi government, and they cannot be compelled to provide testimony and documents in a US proceeding unless their conduct – not LIV’s or anyone else’s – is truly the ‘gravamen’ of the case.”
The PIF has declined to comment while Newcastle have been contacted.
