LONDON: The protracted sale of Premier League club Newcastle United is nearing its conclusion, according to reports.
The British media is reporting that the £300m ($400 million) deal to purchase the northeast England club by PCP Capital Partners has progressed significantly over the last 24 hours after the group, led by financier Amanda Staveley, increased their offer by around £50 million. It has been widely reported that Arabian Gulf money would be used to fund the takeover.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and Staveley, the financial entrepreneur who has around $37 billion of Middle Eastern wealth under management, met in London last week to thrash out the finer details of the deal, with Ashley reportedly keen to ensure his company, Sports Direct, is allowed to continue advertising at St. James’ Park, the club’s ground, and that he would be reimbursed should he, as seems likely, fund the spend on the team in the January window next month.
Staveley, the British businesswoman, is the key player in the deal. She helped broker the £210 million deal for Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour to buy Manchester City in 2008 and was earlier this year linked with a deal for Liverpool Football Club, where she was marginally involved in an abortive takeover by Dubai investors in 2007. She was also said to be interested in doing a deal with Tottenham Hotspur, the north London club.
She told Arab News in June that she saw English football as an “attractive investment,” but is believed to have grown interested in Newcastle since then. Newcastle were put up for sale by Ashley in October in order to, according to a club statement, “give the club the best possible opportunity of securing the positioning and investment necessary to take it to the next level, at what is an important time in its history, its present ownership has determined that it is in the best interests of Newcastle United and its for the club to be put up for sale.”
Ashley purchased the club in 2007 for £134 million and tried to sell it in 2009 but failed to find a suitable buyer.
Newcastle United takeover close after improved Gulf-backed bid of $400m
Newcastle United takeover close after improved Gulf-backed bid of $400m
Sixth Dakar Rally win for Al-Attiyah as Benavides triumphs on two wheels
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah won the Dakar Rally for the sixth time in the car category on Saturday as Argentina’s Luciano Benavides won by two seconds on two wheels, the narrowest margin ever.
Al-Attiyah, with Belgian co-driver Fabian Lurquin, had led overnight after taking his 50th career stage win and made no mistakes as he handed Dacia a first victory at their second attempt in the two-week event held entirely in Saudi Arabia.
The 55-year-old Qatari also won in 2011, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Ford’s Nani Roma finished second, nine minutes and 42 seconds behind, and teammate Mattias Ekstrom was third after winning the final stage.
Last year’s winner Yazeed Al-Rajhi of Saudi Arabia withdrew in the opening week after mechanical problems.
Benavides had earlier taken the motorcycle title after American Ricky Brabec lost his way and saw victory slip through his fingers.
The KTM rider, whose older brother Kevin won the Dakar in 2021 and 2023, came home second in the 105-km stage in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, with Honda’s overnight leader Brabec 10th.
In a grueling endurance event spanning two weeks and 8,000km over rocky roads, through canyons and vast expanses of desert dunes, twice winner Brabec blew his chances with only a few kilometers remaining.
Spaniard Tosha Schareina finished third overall for Honda.
“From the start to the finish I never stopped dreaming, I never stopped believing,” said Benavides, who had trailed Brabec by three minutes and 20 seconds after Friday’s penultimate stage.
“I said to all my people around ‘I don’t know why but I still feel it’s possible, I still believe I can win and it’s going to go my way’.
“In the last three kilometers, Ricky took a wrong piste and I took a good one... I just saw the opportunity and I took it.”
American Skyler Howes was fourth overall for Honda, ahead of Australia’s 2025 champion Daniel Sanders on a KTM.
Sanders crashed on stage 10 but refused to retire and raced on despite a suspected broken collarbone.
