Mark Douglas has dropped a claim explaining what this week's developments on beIN mean for the potential takeover of Newcastle United by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) group.
As per a report from the Associated Press earlier this week, the Serie A is set to lose a lot of money due to the ongoing disputes between beIN and the KSA, as they gained a lot of revenue from the Qatari broadcaster.
Given that beIN is still banned in Saudi Arabia with the tensions still firmly high, added to the strong relationship that the Serie A has with the KSA, the Qatari broadcaster have ostracised the Italian top flight, even telling other countries not to bid for their TV rights.
Douglas has made a connection between this report and the potential takeover of the St. James' Park faithful, given the previous issues that the Premier League have held with the KSA about streaming live fixtures from the division illegally, with beIN currently their sole provider in the Gulf region.
Writing in his latest piece for The Chronicle, the football journalist has claimed that any issues with beIN 'may well become a priority' for the KSA's Public Investment Fund (PIF) if the pending arbitration case is a success for the Magpies.
Newcastle need beIN on their side
As Douglas suggests, assuming that PIF will come back to the table, the North East club will need to try and get beIN on their side in order to have the best chance of a takeover being completed by the Saudi consortium.
The unblocking of the Qatari broadcaster in the Kingdom may well go a long way in doing this, but that is not a formality given that there are clearly still tensions between the two Gulf countries.