Premier League under fire over Newcastle United takeover 'silence' amid anger on Tyneside

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), backed by Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners and David and Simon Reuben, withdrew from a £300million deal last week over the Premier League’s failure to make a timely decision on its approval.

The investment group planned to invest a further £250million into the club over a five-year period.

The Premier League, up to now, has made no comment on the process – and NUST today issued a statement calling for “transparency”.

It read: "The North East of England has recently missed out on potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of investment from a consortium of investors who have recently tried to buy Newcastle United.

“This region has long been starved of the kind of investment in infrastructure and housing that other parts of the United Kingdom have benefited from.

“The collapse of the purchase of Newcastle United has potentially robbed the North East of a huge opportunity.

“Both PCP, PIF and the Reuben brothers have publicly commented on large scale plans for investment in the whole region, not just the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.

“The supporters of Newcastle United have been ignored by the Premier League. The people of the North East have been ignored by the Premier League.

“The Premier League may have sound reasons for drawing out the takeover process for more than four months, and the Premier League may have done everything they needed to do to protect their business and Newcastle United.

“However, there must be transparency after the process has completed. Answers must be provided about decisions which affect millions of people in our region.

“So far, the silence from the Premier League suggests they believe the people of the North East don’t matter and that we don’t deserve answers.

“The Trust has over 14,000 paying members across the North East and we are calling on local politicians to come together to request that the Premier League provide answers to supporters about this process.

“This is not about Newcastle United or even just the Tyneside region. The economy of the whole North East would have benefited from this investment.

“The aim is to better understand a process that has denied this region of investment when it needs it most.

“The people of this region shouldn’t be kept in the dark about decisions that affect them the most.”

Meanwhile, the Reuben brothers – who own Newcastle Racecourse – remain “totally supportive” of the deal, and hope talks with the Premier League can be “resurrected”.

Martin Cruddace, chief executive officer of Arena Racing Company, said: “We would welcome any resurrection of talks and progress with the Premier League, and are aware that the Reuben brothers remain totally supportive of the deal should there be a way forward.”