‘Fair play’ - Simon Jordan makes Amanda Staveley admission and Man Utd and Newcastle United comparisons

It was revealed on Wednesday that Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi are set to step away from the club with the expectation that their shares in Newcastle United will be sold to either PIF or Jamie Reuben’s RB Sports & Media. When the takeover was completed in October 2021, Staveley Cantervale Holdings acquired a 10% stake in Newcastle United with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund taking an 80% stake and RB Sports & Media the remaining 10%. Staveley’s stake was later reduced to 6% and then 5.7% with Reuben’s share increasing to 14.3%.

Having been linked with a takeover of the club for four years and then being the face of the takeover once it was eventually completed, Staveley also worked as a representative for Newcastle United at Premier League meetings. Darren Eales is now expected to take on that role.

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan, who has previously been very vocal on Staveley as well as the Newcastle United takeover as a whole, famously calling it ‘deader than a dead thing from dead land’ just a matter of days before its completion back in 2021, has given his opinion on Staveley’s departure from Newcastle United. Speaking on TalkSport, Jordan praised Staveley for helping to broker a ‘great deal’ in purchasing Newcastle United for far less money than recent full and minority takeovers of Chelsea and Manchester United. 

He said: “Amanda got them in the door. They bought Newcastle and you look at it for around £300 million, you look at a team in the Premier League for £300 million. When you look at clubs being sold for £2.5b, it’s a great deal. It’s a great deal.

“And she was instrumental in that, but it wasn’t her money. So with all due respect, she was clever at manipulating the circumstances to get people that wanted to buy a football club. She orchestrated a deal. She got 10% shareholding out of it. She’s probably cashed out very nicely at that. Fair play to her.”