{"id":12362,"date":"2023-04-06T17:17:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=296653"},"modified":"2023-04-06T17:17:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T11:47:09","slug":"emails-reveal-uk-government-involvement-in-newcastle-united-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/emails-reveal-uk-government-involvement-in-newcastle-united-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Emails reveal UK Government involvement in Newcastle United takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-private=\"redact\" data-wt-guid=\"355ece8b-ace0-409c-9807-ee6891fd6556\" data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">The British government considered the possible failure of the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United to be an \u201cimmediate risk\u201d to the United Kingdom\u2019s relationship with the Gulf nation, an investigation by <strong>The Athletic<\/strong> has revealed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5 r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-xoduu5 r-18u37iz r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-xoduu5 r-1wbh5a2 r-dnmrzs r-1ny4l3l\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-xoduu5 r-18u37iz r-dnmrzs\"><strong><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1awozwy r-18jsvk2 r-6koalj r-poiln3 r-b88u0q r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-3s2u2q r-qvutc0\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 css-1hf3ou5 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">Adam Crafton reports <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1awozwy r-18jsvk2 r-6koalj r-poiln3 r-b88u0q r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-3s2u2q r-qvutc0\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 css-1hf3ou5 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">that<\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1awozwy r-18jsvk2 r-6koalj r-poiln3 r-b88u0q r-bcqeeo r-1udh08x r-3s2u2q r-qvutc0\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 css-1hf3ou5 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> t<\/span><\/span><\/span>hen-prime minister Boris Johnson\u2019s chief strategic advisor even sought a \u201csenior interlocutor\u201d to represent the government\u2019s interests\u201d in the Premier League. Internal foreign office emails even go so far as to flag up an interview by legal reps of the grieving fianc\u00e9e of journalist Jamal Khashoggi when she pleaded on the BBC for the takeover to be blocked in April 2020. Boris Johnson refused to comment on the latest revelations.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1awozwy r-xoduu5 r-18u37iz r-dnmrzs\">The previous former government insisted \u201cno pressure was applied\u201d during the takeover negotiations. Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister told Parliament in 2021: \u201cThese are commercial matters for the parties concerned. The government was not involved in the takeover talks for Newcastle United sale.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">UK gov't emails that show how much they wanted <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NUFC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NUFC<\/a> Saudi takeover:<\/p>\n<p>\u25aa\ufe0f Boris Johnson's chief advisor considering who should impress govt interests on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PL<\/a> <br \/>\u25aa\ufe0f Attempts to give PL 'assurances they seek'<br \/>\u25aa\ufe0f PIF aim to invest $30bn into UK<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamCrafton_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AdamCrafton_<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FYHUcERuJj\">https:\/\/t.co\/FYHUcERuJj<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8FhBAsltmP\">pic.twitter.com\/8FhBAsltmP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthleticFC\/status\/1643871409268051968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A spokesman for Boris Johnson declined to comment on whether this answer was misleading, saying it was a question for the government. <\/p>\n<p>The Government continues to say it \u201chas not had a role at any point in the takeover of Newcastle United.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i4zldl1qQ7\">https:\/\/t.co\/i4zldl1qQ7<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lBSnwR60to\">pic.twitter.com\/lBSnwR60to<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamCrafton_\/status\/1643894554016333826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p data-private=\"redact\" data-wt-guid=\"12bcf254-2fb5-4f3b-ae10-4d674c61f94c\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fianc\u00e9e of Jamal Khashoggi, through BBC, pleaded for the takeover to be blocked in April 2020. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":34735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1266,1169],"class_list":["post-12362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-boris-johnson","tag-newcastle-united"],"reading_time":"1 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}