American media mogul Henry Mauriss has made an official bid to buy Newcastle United, per Chronicle Live.
The chief executive of ClearTV is said to have held talks with owner Mike Ashley in recent weeks and is now said to have put together a formal bid.
The report states that the bid is worth £350 million, though the current regime are yet to comment.
Mauriss’ bid is said to be built around the prospect of being in charge of the club for the 2020/21 season, but it remains to be seen how this will affect the bid by the Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund.
The consortium, fronted by Amanda Staveley, has appeared on the verge of taking control away from Ashley for weeks but they have yet to receive ratification from the Premier League.
Reports state that the PIF bid is worth £300m, meaning Mauriss may have outbid the competition.
GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…
Actual movement!
For quite some time, Newcastle fans have heard nothing about the prospect of PIF receiving approval from the league.
However, this week, it appears that Mauriss has spotted an opening and has gone for it as a result.
If this report is true, Ashley has a decision to make but one has to imagine that this will be a quicker bid to ratify compared to the Saudi one.
There are, of course, a number of hurdles that the latter offer is facing, not least the human rights abuses in the country.
If Mauriss can prove that he has the funds, he may well end up gazumping the competition.