The European Champions League played by a Saudi club in the near future is the vision of the Newcastle boss.
The prospect seems crazy: a Saudi Pro League club, the Saudi football elite, competing in the European Champions League. The director and minority shareholder of Newcastle United, Amanda Staveley, firmly believes in this perspective.
“ I’m pretty sure there will be a Saudi club in the Champions League. I don’t know when, but knowing the Saudis, I don’t think it will take much time », Says the boss of the Magpies, thus relayed this Thursday in the British press.
UEFA has already said no
Like the four main clubs in the Saudi football league (Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahly), Newcastle United since 2021 has been 80% owned by the famous PIF, the Saudi sovereign fund. Amanda Staveley holds a 10% stake in the Magpies.
The latter’s opinion is therefore anything but neutral and impartial, especially since it was issued within the framework of a Bloomberg conference – an influential American financial group – in Jeddah. A few months ago, however, the president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin himself, ruled out such a hypothesis, qualifying the impact of the big players who left for the Saudi El Dorado.
