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It’s been four-and-a-half years since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took over at Newcastle United.
On the pitch, a first trophy for more than half a century has been delivered, as has a return to club football’s biggest stage, when Eddie Howe’s men qualified for the Champions League at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Progress off the pitch following the controversial £305 million takeover has been somewhat slower, as supporters await further updates on PIF’s stadium plans, while a series of sporting directors have come and gone.
Newcastle owners PIF step up multi-club plans
However, PIF are reportedly said to be stepping up plans for a multi-club ownership model which will make a significant impact on how the club is run.
According to the Daily Mail, staff at Newcastle have been instructed to prepare for an expansion into a multi-club model, indicating that PIF are ready to begin operations in mainland Europe.
This move could happen as early as this year, with work actively being undertaken in order to identify clubs in Belgium and France which could match up from a financial and footballing perspective.
Should Newcastle become part of a multiclub group, they would join the likes of the City Football Group, which is headlined by Manchester City, the BlueCo group, which contains Chelsea, plus the Red Bull stable of clubs.
One of the key benefits of being part of a larger ownership group is the opportunity to house players elsewhere and to send promising youngsters out on loan.
Post-Brexit rules mean that Premier League clubs are now unable to sign players from abroad before their 18th birthday, meaning that they can miss out on some of Europe’s best teenage talents.
The report adds that sporting director Ross Wilson and the club’s head of football strategy Jack Ross are key figures in the expansion plans and are working with other PIF representatives who are currently involved in running the club.
A multi-club group has been discussed in the past before at Newcastle with former director Amanda Staveley outlining some of the markets the club were looking at back in 2024.
“We’ve looked at Belgium, we’ve looked at European markets, we’ve looked in Asia, Australia, we’ve looked in Brazil – pretty much everything,” she said,
“We’ve looked at every market and getting players through our academy system and through that multi-club model would be very helpful in terms of allowing us to buy and have players as part of our journey earlier on.”
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