'Mind your own business!' - Simon Jordan's message to Premier League clubs 'unhappy' with Newcastle United takeover

Reports over the weekend claimed the Magpies’ top-flight counterparts had complained about the Saudi-led deal and as a result were demanding an emergency meeting with the EPL.

The takeover bid involving PCP Partners, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the Reuben brothers was agreed in March last year but stalled at the EPL’s owners and directors test stage.

Both parties, including Mike Ashley, refused to give up on the deal and launched two legal challenges against the EFL – arbitration and the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) case.

Interestingly, during the Magpies’ CAT hearing, Adam Lewis, the EPL’s QC, confirmed the deal could progress if there were proof that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not control the football.

On Thursday, the EPL confirmed it had received those “legally binding assurances” and the Amanda Staveley-headed consortium were finally handed the keys to St James’s Park.

The statement added “all parties have agreed the settlement is necessary to end the long uncertainty for fans over the club’s ownership” after an eighteen-month wait.

The approval of the takeover has reportedly left clubs demanding answers but Jordan believes they have no right to.

He told talkSPORT: “It’s none of my business who owns another football club.

“It’s the Premier League’s job to make sure people meet the obligations of whoever owns a football club has to meet – and that’s the job they’re supposed to do.

“The executive side of it, which is where Richard Masters and Gary Hoffman sit, they’ve got to enforce the rules that clubs voted for.

“And if somehow in a parallel universe they’ve managed to do that with nonsense like separation from the Saudi state then I would have to get on with it like everyone else.”

Mansour, who completed his takeover of Manchester City in 2008, is the United Arab Emirates’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

Calls for an emergency meeting is not an attempt to derail the takeover as such, instead rather a reflection of “how high feelings are running”.

Jordan continued: “Point me to the rule where it says a state can’t own a football club because I thought Sheikh Mansour was prime minister of the UAE, so that’s a state owning Man City.

“I’m looking at it going ‘what would these 19 clubs have to say besides we don’t like it?’ Well, what’s it got to do with you!

“Newcastle is a private business that plays in a football league.

"Newcastle United was owned by Mike Ashley and he’s entitled to sell the football club to whoever he wants as long as it complies with the Premier League rules.

“So what you’re basically is, they should go in there and pitch to the other 19 clubs to make sure they’re happy with who you’re selling to?”

“Mind your own bleedin’ business!”

Newcastle host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday in their first game under the new ownership. Non-executive chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is hoping to be in attendance.

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