Richard Masters reveals how Newcastle United takeover was approved

The

Premier League

got "legally binding assurances" that the Saudi state would not run the club and that the new

owners could be removed if "evidence to the contrary" was revealed.

At the time of the takeover, a Newcastle United statement announced that

Yasir Al-Rumayyan

, the governor of the PIF, will serve as the club's non-executive chairman, with

Staveley

sitting on the board and

Jamie Reuben

serving as a director.

Speaking to

, Masters said:

"There are legally binding assurances that essentially the state will not be in control of the club. If we find evidence to the contrary, we can remove the consortium as owners of the club, in accordance with the rules, so that is understood.

"We have been given assurances, and there are ways of ensuring that we are comfortable and satisfied that that remains the case.

"The takeover has gone through and we are comfortable that all the things that we do at the Premier League will be preserved under the new ownership. All of the things that we do and the club does under our equality and diversity scheme will be preserved.

"You can't have one rule for one and one rule for another and so Newcastle will continue to be run on the right basis.

"PIF are an investor in many other companies in this country and maybe football is being targeted and talked about in a different way. I can't choose who is chairing a football club. The owners test doesn't let us take a view on that."

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