Aston Villa and 18 other Premier League clubs have demanded answers following Newcastle United’s official takeover, according to The Guardian, and a number of Villa fans have been reacting to the update on social media.
Newcastle are now owned by Saudi-led consortium PIF, who purchased the club from Mike Ashley in a deal worth £300m which went through on Friday. The deal has been strongly criticised by human rights groups, with the PIF – the Middle Eastern country's sovereign wealth fund – overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Guardian shared a report on Friday evening claiming that the other 19 top-flight clubs, including Villa, now want to know what changed for the Premier League to wave through a takeover with little notice.
The report claims that clubs have expressed their concern following the deal, with some who had no idea about the takeover already making complaints to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and chairman Gary Hoffman.
Villa fans react
Well-known Villa account @villareport shared The Guardian’s claim on Twitter on Friday evening. Here is what these Villa fans had to say in reply, with many making their feelings known and one calling on CEO Christian Purslow to take the fight to the Premier League...
“Come on Purslow”
“HERE WE GO.”
“Club should just fold”
“Someone grab the popcorn”
“Imagine the scenes”
“Gutted - the market will be even more inflated with people having to spend more in the Prem due to a “Newcastle tax” and that means buying players will get super costly and players will be an even bigger risk. I hope that an FFP plan get introduced to make it fair”
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