Hello and welcome to the TIFO football podcast. I'm Joe Devine and today I was delighted to be

joined by James Montague. Today's episode is a part two of our podcast from a couple of weeks ago

on the Newcastle takeover situation. Last time round, we talked about Mike Ashley and the hypothetical

situation with Newcastle's new owners, what we might expect to see from a club being taken over

by a, well, a fund with an awful lot of financial backing. Today's episode focuses on that fund

and the new potential owners. At the time of recording, the takeover

has not been completed. We are expecting it to go through, but we don't know exactly when. So today,

James Montague talked to me about Mohammed bin Salman, who is technically at the very top of the

PIF fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which is worth in the region of hundreds of

billions of dollars. We also talk a little bit about Amanda Stavely, the Dubai-based deal maker,

who will be taking 10% of Newcastle, along with her group PCP partners, and will probably be in

charge of the day-to-day running of the club. And finally, what this all means for Newcastle fans who have obviously been put in a very difficult, ethical conflict.

We released a video yesterday on the TIFO football YouTube channel, a 15-minute-long, epic mega, all about the history of Mohammed bin Salman and everything you need to know about

the prospective new owners of Newcastle United. So you can go and check that out. We recover some of

that territory in this podcast though, so it's not necessary to watch it if you haven't already.

And James also wrote a piece about why Mohammed bin Salman and the P.A.F. might like to buy

Newcastle United. That was released

on The Athletic over the weekend, and as part of it, it features an interview with Hittij T. J. Tenghis,

the fiancé of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi American journalist who was murdered in the Saudi

consulate in Istanbul a couple of years ago, and who is at the centre of this story.

So you can go and check that out. And to do so, if you're not a subscriber already, you can get a

90-day free trial by visiting theathletic.com.com.com.com. That's the numbers 9-0.

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