Amnesty International, UK has written to the Premier League to investigate ‘human rights violations’ by the new owners of Premier League club, Newcastle United. A consortium by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, completed the acquisition of the English Premier League club.
Amnesty International has written to the Premier League “to replace their owners and to test directors to address human rights issues”, The Athletic reports.
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PIF together with PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media (“Investment Group”) completed the acquisition of the Newcastle United club on 7 October 2021. The club made an announcement in a statement on its official website.
The phrase ‘human rights’ does not even stand the test of owners and directors, despite English football following FIFA’s standards. Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of Amnesty International UK, said: “We have sent a suggested new human rights-compliance test to the Premier League and we reiterate our call to overhaul our standards on this.
“Under Mohammed bin Salman, the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia remains grim – government critics, women’s rights campaigners, Shia activists and human defenders are still being harassed and imprisoned, often for unfair trials. After,” she said.
Saudi Arabia is accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The door-to-door trial of his murder raised a lot of eyebrows and tarnished the reputation of KSA. The KSA is also accused of crimes in war-torn Yemen.
I hope fans and players @NUFC Will hold their owners accountable and asks them why no one knows Jamal’s body yet? Why didn’t Jamal get justice? It’s such a shame. #newcastletakeover #jamalakhshoggi #justiceforjamal pic.twitter.com/JrO3K030H4
— hattis cengiz / ديجة (@mercan_resifi) October 7, 2021
He also said that the Premier League is known for campaigns like ‘No Room for Racism’, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Rainbow Less’. Deshmukh said the takeover of Newcastle United’s new owners “makes a mockery of these important campaigns”.
“We are asking the Premier League and its chief executive Richard Masters to closely examine its moral compass,” she said.
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