Lee Ryder has shared an important update on Newcastle United’s Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) takeover case against the Premier League.
The Lowdown: Ashley’s claims
Mike Ashley has launched two separate claims against the top flight the CAT lawsuit over the decision-making process in the failing of the deal between him and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) consortium, and the arbitration case, which is set to take place this month.
Are the Premier League to blame for the Newcastle takeover collapse?
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Liam Kennedy, journalist for The Shields Gazette who has been following the latest developments in the whole takeover saga closely, has also claimed that the division’s attempts to have the CAT case thrown out ‘seem to have failed’, while the push for a private hearing, and more delays, ‘goes on’.
The Latest: CAT update
Writing in his latest piece for The Chronicle, Ryder has shared that the St. James’ Park faithful’s CAT claim against the Premier League has been delayed once more until July 12th.
The Hon. Mr Justice Roth, in court documents (via The Chronicle) has stated: “The Defendant is granted an extension of time in which to file and serve its evidence in reply until 5pm on 12 July 2021.
“I am satisfied that the requested short extension of seven days will not prejudice the listing of the hearing of the Jurisdiction Application and is reasonable given the concurrent demands on the Defendant in preparing for the arbitration proceedings.”
The Verdict: Delay tactics
It certainly seems that the top flight are trying to delay the CAT case from happening, given that their attempts to have it thrown out ‘seem to have failed’, as per Kennedy.
This would be in line with an accusation made by Mehrdad Ghodoussi, the husband of consortium member Amanda Staveley, who claimed that the division are using ‘delay tactics’.
This could be seen as the Premier League losing confidence over whether they would be able to win the case, and so delaying it further would give them more time to prepare for it.
Nonetheless, with the arbitration hearing set to take place this month too, it is certainly set up to be quite the legal battle between them and the North East club.
In other news, find out what takeover sources have said about arbitration recently here!
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