By Adedapo Adesanya
The United Kingdom government has said it will not block Newcastle United FC takeover from a Saudi Arabia-backed consortium.
The Middle-Eastern Kingdom was recently reported to be involved in a proposed £300 million takeover of the English football outfit alongside American and British investors.
However, Amnesty International and Qatar-based TV giant, beIN Sport, have called on the UK government to block the deal.
The UK Culture Secretary, Mr Oliver Dowden, has. however, clarified that there is no plan to block the buy-out, despite allegations against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman regarding the death of journalist Jamal Kashoggi in 2018.
Mr Dowden said, “The fit and proper person test is undertaken by the Premier League. I don’t want to prejudge the process. I would also take slight issue with the characterisation of him personally.”
When asked on the possibility of the involvement of the Crown Prince, he said, “First of all it is not him personally buying it. We have good foreign relations with Saudi Arabia and have never been shy of raising all these human rights abuses and we will continue to do so.
“This is a matter for the football league and I don’t intend to vary the approach that it is for the football league to carry out that assessment.
“I am content that they should carry out that test.”
The chief executive of beIN Sport, Mr Yousef al-Obaidly, had recently written to the premier league, accusing the Saudi Arabian government of the near three-year theft of the Premier League’s commercial rights and revenues through its backing of the huge-scale beoutQ pirate service.
According to Mr al-Obaidly, it has cost Qatar-based beIN Sports millions upon millions in revenue.
On its own, Human rights campaigners Amnesty International also criticised the potential deal based on a long list of human rights abuse by the Kingdom, including the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The widow of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Hatice Cengiz, said on Wednesday that allowing the deal would greatly stain the Premier League, yet the government has made clear in parliament that they will not intervene.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Dipo Olowookere