---
title: "Newcastle United: Mark Douglas shares Premier League insight"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/takeover-news-premier-league-anti-competition/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Adam Clancy"
section: "Newcastle United"
published: "2021-06-05T17:35:38Z"
modified: "2021-06-05T17:35:38Z"
---

# Newcastle United: Mark Douglas shares Premier League insight

**Mark Douglas has shared some enticing insight into the Premier League and what they may do with Newcastle United’s anti-competition case.**

### The Lowdown: Ashley against the Premier League

Mike Ashley has [launched](https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57017152) an anti-competition lawsuit against the top flight with regards to their decision-making process in the failed takeover at St. James’ Park by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) consortium.

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This is a separate case to arbitration, which is set to take place between the two parties in July.

If the North East club are successful in the arbitration hearing, then the anti-competition lawsuit would no longer need to be launched, but it does provide a safety blanket for Ashley if the results do not go his way.

### The Latest: Premier League insight

Writing in his latest piece for [The Chronicle](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/revealed-newcastles-pressing-10million-transfer-20745196), Douglas has shared that it is expected that the division will apply to have the anti-competition case either thrown out or delayed, because it duplicates a lot of aspects of the separate arbitration claim.

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The journalist also adds that they now have less than a week to respond to the anti-competition claim, which is seen as an explicit pressure tactic by the chief executive of Sports Direct in order to push the PL into a compromise on the takeover bid.

### The Verdict: Anti-competition a nice safety blanket

If the results of the arbitration case do not go in the favour of the Tyneside club, then the separate anti-competition lawsuit is certainly a nice card to have up Ashley’s sleeve, and would still give him hope of a sale.

[Newcastle updates! (4)](https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/web-stories/newcastle-updates-4/)

However, the ideal scenario for the businessman would surely be that he wins the arbitration hearing, and so the anti-competition claim would no longer be needed.

Nonetheless, arbitration will paint a much clearer picture over the direction of where the takeover is heading, and a positive result for the Magpies would surely bring its potential revival one step closer.

[***In other news, find out what insight Mark Douglas has dropped from sources close to the potential takeover here!***](https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/newcastle-united-news/takeover-news-premier-league-arbitration/)