Yasir Al-Rumayyan delivers five-word PIF message to Newcastle United & co ahead of Premier League APT ruling

The third edition of the PIF private sector forum took place in Riyadh last week with Newcastle’s director of partnerships Jonathan Kane in attendance with a dedicated booth for the club. PIF governor and Newcastle chairman Al-Rumayyan was also present, delivering a speech at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre.

The two-day conference saw Al-Rumayyan urge attendees to ‘take advantage of partnership opportunities’. According to PIF’s official website, the conference aimed to ‘showcase PIF and its portfolio companies’ business opportunities, signal potential opportunities for investors/suppliers, and maximise the windows of cooperation’.

PIF is looking to increase the contribution of the local private sector into projects and portfolio companies to 60%.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s message to Newcastle United & PIF portfolio companies

Speaking at the forum, Al-Rumayyan said: “The private sector is a pivotal partner in this successful journey and is part of the national economic transformation.

“I encourage you to continue developing capabilities and enhancing competitiveness to keep pace with the economic growth in Saudi Arabia and the future projects, and I invite you to take advantage of the partnership opportunities available with the PIF and portfolio companies."

Premier League APT ruling

Al-Rumayyan’s comments were timely given they came just before a tribunal ruled that the Premier League’s sponsorship rules introduced after PIF’s takeover of Newcastle were ‘void and unenforceable’. The rules came to fruition as a direct response to the Newcastle takeover by PIF.

The rules placed a temporary embargo on Newcastle striking any commercial deals with PIF-linked companies. Newcastle had to ensure that any commercial deals with companies linked to PIF (such as Sela and Noon) are independently assessed and deemed to be of ‘fair market value’.

Premier League clubs voted to amend APT rules in November 2024 but this has since been met with a fresh legal challenge from Manchester City. The vote passed despite opposition from Newcastle, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and City themselves.

The conclusion to the tribunal released last week read: "In the first partial final award it was declared that the APT rules and amended APT rules were unlawful in three respects.

"There now arises for decision the question whether those three respects can be severed from the remaining APT rules so that those remaining APT rules are valid and enforceable.

"The three respects in which the APT rules and amended APT rules were unlawful cannot be severed with the result that the APT rules as a whole are void and unenforceable."

Amanda Staveley angered by APT rule change

Although Newcastle haven’t gone as hard as Manchester City when it comes to challenging APT rules, former co-owner Amanda Staveley previously went public with her frustration at the fact the rules were introduced a matter of weeks after the Newcastle takeover.

“I was shocked we could buy a club, pay full price and then the rules just changed. That's what [expletive] me off because we had so little revenue anyway. That if you're just going to ban everything - we were 20th, we had nothing - I was angry.”

Your next Newcastle United read: Newcastle United midfielder ruled out v Nottingham Forest & Liverpool as return timescale set