Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged Boris Johnson to intervene in the takeover of Newcastle United by telling the Premier League to ‘correct’ its decision to block the deal.
In an extraordinary exchange revealed by the Daily Mail, Bin Salman warned the Prime Minister on June 27 last year that Anglo-Saudi relations would be damaged unless the £300million buyout was approved. His message to Mr Johnson read: ‘We expect the English Premier League to reconsider and correct its wrong conclusion.’
Mr Johnson asked one of his senior aides, Lord Eddie Lister, to investigate the matter but the Saudis withdrew from the process at the end of July after the Premier League failed to approve them as the club’s new owners.