Newcastle’s ownership group and England manager Gareth Southgate
Premier League clubs didn’t vote for a temporary ban on loan moves between clubs under the same ownership because it was like “turkeys voting for Christmas”, according to the Daily Mail’s North East football correspondent Craig Hope.
The 20 clubs voted on whether to allow deals of that nature to be blocked on Tuesday, but only 13 opted in favour, one short of the required number. Hope believes the fact many teams are part of that set-up means they would suffer in the long term.
“The expectation was there would be 14 votes [in favour],” Hope told BBC Radio 5 Live. “But in the end it had a feel of turkeys voting for Christmas.
“There are 11 clubs in the Premier League who are part of a multi-club ownership model. They like to use those clubs as part of a network to send players on loan.
“The expectation was that, down the line, the rule changes would evolve to a block on all transfers. Some clubs didn’t want to take that risk.”
Newcastle United’s ability to trade with the Saudi Pro League – given both are majority owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund – was sharply in focus.
Although Hope says the ruling should have been looked at a long time ago, he added that the Magpies felt they would be held at a disadvantage had the ban been confirmed.
“Newcastle would have said this [ban] would have only impacted the Saudi league in practice. Why should they, as one club, be banned from trading with the league when 19 others are free to?
“We saw in the summer, the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool profited handsomely from selling players. I can see both sides of this argument; it should probably have been looked at a long time ago.”
