The Premier League have claimed a government minister was ‘unable to confirm’ if Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince would have to undergo the independent football regulator’s owners’ and directors’ test.
On an evening when Newcastle United were namechecked a whopping 20 times inside the chamber, Lord Moynihan asked Baroness Twycross, the parliamentary under-secretary of state at the department for culture, media and sport, if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would be subject to an ownership test during a House of Lords debate on the football governance bill a couple of months ago. The minister initially replied yes and added that any owner with ‘state backing or otherwise will be assessed against the same set of criteria as any other prospective owner’.
However, Baroness Twycross later moved to clarify her response in a bid to ‘reassure’ Newcastle fans. The minister said an incumbent individual simply meeting the definition, including if they exert significant influence or control, did not mean that the regulator was ‘required or obliged to test them’, but Clare Sumner, the Premier League’s chief policy officer, has called for further clarity on the matter.
“On the floor in the House of Lords, the minister was unable to confirm for sure and, again, I appreciate that this is not without controversy,” she told the Price of Football. “In terms of actual certainty, that’s an issue and then we don’t know quite whether other people will be tested or not.
“In terms of regulatory certainty, from my experience, what’s important is to be crystal clear. Opaqueness does nobody any favours on either side. It’s not going to help the regulator and it’s not going to help the clubs, either, and the lack of clarity is something that could be improved.”
The Premier League, of course, received legally-binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not control Newcastle, after the PIF bought a majority stake in the club in 2021, but Lord Moynihan claimed the football governance bill goes further in granting powers to the regulator that are not just about control. An individual ‘has to be considered who has a higher degree of influence over the ownership of a club’, as a result, but that appears to have sparked confusion.
“The recent debate in the House of Lords showed a lack of clarity on the face of the legislation and that is concerning,” Sumner added. “So when you get to things like the owners’ and directors’ test and not being able to be absolutely clear about that, that’s a real worry.
“One of the great things now is that the government have an opportunity to fix this and get it right so that it’s a whole bill that will work and be effective because then that’s in the interest of football. What we really would like now is for the government to constructively engage with us to help improve and change the bill. That’s entirely possible.”
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