A Murder, A Protest, And The Newcastle United Takeover (Updated)
The Lead
Wondery
3.9 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2021
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yet another English Premier League club has now been purchased by a group of Middle Eastern investors with deep ties to their country's government. In this case, the team is Newcastle United -- a club with a rich history, but plenty of recent frustration -- and a group of investors backed by the Saudi Arabian royal family. The deal was officially confirmed on Thursday. Today, James Montague, a contributing writer for The Athletic, discusses the polarizing purchase, its connection to the high-profile murder of a Saudi journalist, and his fiancee's quest to stop the sale from happening. (Note: This is an updated version of an episode that originally aired on May 27, 2020, when it first looked like the deal was going through -- it has been updated to reflect the latest developments.)
More from James Montague:
https://theathletic.com/1788335/2021/10/06/why-does-saudi-arabia-want-to-buy-newcastle-united/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the lead ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi there, Wondry listeners. Hannah and Sruti here from TrueCram Podcast Redhanded. |
| 0:11.0 | Your favourite podcast Redhanded. We just wanted to say how excited we are to be included in Amazon Music |
| 0:16.0 | and Wondry's best podcasts of the year as chosen by their listeners, which is you. |
| 0:21.0 | So thank you so much to everyone who listened to us voted for us, all the things you do for us. |
| 0:26.0 | Any of you out there who haven't checked out Redhanded, what are you doing? What are you waiting for? |
| 0:31.0 | It's a weekly show where we deep dive into the most talked about cases like the Delphi murders, |
| 0:35.0 | and also those you might never have heard of like the Nathari child sacrifices in Delhi. |
| 0:40.0 | Go listen to Redhanded right now on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:45.0 | That's the sound of thousands of Newcastle United fans gathered outside the team stadium this past Thursday. |
| 0:58.0 | After finding out that their club had been purchased by incredibly wealthy new owners. |
| 1:07.0 | And while many Newcastle United fans don't seem to care much about where the money's coming from, others certainly do. |
| 1:13.0 | Saudi Arabia say it's from their public investment fund, but the chair of that is Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, |
| 1:20.0 | accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the kingdom denies. |
| 1:24.0 | Today, we're replaying a story that originally aired back in May of 2020 when it first looked like this deal was going to go through. |
| 1:31.0 | And there's an update at the end. |
| 1:33.0 | And just a heads up that there are some graphic descriptions of violence in this episode. All right, here it is. |
| 1:45.0 | Two years ago Saudi Arabian officials killed a well-known journalist. |
| 1:49.0 | Khashoggi was attacked and he died in a most gruesome way. |
| 1:56.0 | And now the man widely believed to have ordered that killing is in the process of buying Newcastle United. |
| 2:02.0 | The main player, the Saudi public investment fund holding 80% of the deal. |
| 2:09.0 | Today, James Managu, a contributing writer for the athletic, joins us to discuss the highly polarizing bid to buy one of the premier leagues most beloved teams and one woman's quest to stop it from happening. |
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