Newcastle's takeover saga has reached the point of bewilderment.Will it ever be completed? At this stage, it feels like it never will.For 17 weeks we've been waiting for news from the Premier League over whether they'd pass the deal from PIF and up to this point, we've been provided with few clues.Premier League chief Richard Masters suggested over two weeks ago now that a resolution was close but that was put into doubt after huge news coming out of Saudi Arabia this week.They completely banned beIN Sports from their country, also slapping the broadcaster with a £2m fine.That all came after a long-running piracy dispute. beIN had been showing Premier League coverage to their customers illegally, and thus, a TV deal needed to be concluded with the Premier League.It now appears as though that'll be with a Saudi network instead.
Speaking about the process behind the deal, one Newcastle fan took to Twitter to ask a variety of questions. He queried why the owners' and directors' test was outdated while also raising concerns about piracy itself and why it appeared that the Premier League were doing nothing to prevent it.Chronicle journalist Mark Douglas was there to respond to the supporter but simply suggested that it was all very complicated.However, the main thing to note was what Douglas thought would happen by the time this was all said and done.Fortunately, he suggested that the takeover would eventually be completed.
Of course, we've been here before, but despite the supposed beIN setback this week, it's encouraging to note that it's not had disastrous consequences.
GIVEMESPORT'S Matt Dawson says...
This is an extremely puzzling time for everyone involved.
However, the worst bit about this whole takeover is that this issue could have been solved over a year ago now.
Piracy has been the biggest issue in delaying the ongoing takeover but 12 months ago, the Premier League lobbied the British government to go and investigate Saudi Arabia.
Clearly, they didn't do so sufficiently because beIN Sports were still stealing their product.
Had things been looked into, perhaps a TV deal would have been agreed long ago.
Instead, we're now just waiting for someone on the Saudi end to come to a formal agreement with the top-flight.
That has been put on the ropes with the banning of beIN but a Saudi led broadcaster could come in and save proceedings.
The Toon Army will certainly hope that's the case - this has all been going on for far too long.