Human rights groups criticize sale of Newcastle United

By Agency Brazil

Published on 10/08/2021 at 3:40 pm The Saudi human rights group ALQST has accused the English football league of being motivated solely by money and employing “deeply inadequate” criteria to assess human rights after Newcastle United was acquired by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman now owns 80% of the club, and the rest is split between RB Sports & Media and PCP Capital Partners, whose chief executive, Amanda Staveley, led the acquisition. While fans are hopeful that the acquisition will help change the club’s fortunes, several human rights groups have questioned the league for allowing the deal, pointing to Saudi Arabia’s poor record on rights humans. “For Saudi Arabia, the deal shows the success of its PR strategy to invest in sporting ventures in an attempt to clean up the image. For the English league… they are effectively inviting other abusive leaders to follow suit,” Nabhan al-Hanashi, who serves on the ALQST board on an interim basis, told Reuters. “The reasoning [da liga inglesa] that the PIF is a separate entity from the Saudi state is farcical. Just look at who presides over the PIF: Crown Prince Bin Salman himself, whose government is marked by the most brutal forms of repression.” Note: This article has been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at the original source Click Here (adsbygoogle=window.adsbygoogle || []).push();