SportsPro editor at large Eoin Connolly is joined on the SportsPro Podcast by Press Association chief sports reporter Jamie Gardner and Professor Simon Chadwick, global professor of sport at Emlyon Business School, to unpack the takeover of Premier League soccer team Newcastle United by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.
They assess the response in Newcastle and across the English game, and consider some of the questions that have faced the Premier League since the deal went through, from the human rights record of the Saudi state to the reaction of other clubs. The episode also looks into some of the motivations of the PIF and its partners in pursuing the deal, considering how Newcastle came to be identified as a target and how the acquisition fits into a wider sports investment strategy, and ask what comes next.
