Hiring Mourinho at Newcastle or defending himself from suspicions of persecution against a former Saudi Arabian secret agent? Difficult days for Yasir Al-Rumayyan, president of United, a historic and glorious Premier League team now entrusted to coach Eddie Howe. A burdensome task that the 54-year-old Saudi manager and economist combines with running the Pif investment fund, of the Saudi Aramco group, sitting on the boards of Uber and the Japanese multinational Softbank and directing the Liv Golf, a professional golf circuit launched in 2021 to compete with the powerful Pga Tour thanks to investments from the Pif.
In short, a fairly congested agenda, his, which now however, highlights in red the risk of being accused of having tried to harm, silence and finally destroy Saad Aljabri, former head of Saudi Arabia's Intelligence. And not only him: other members of his family too, as reported by the well-informed site 11 or Rivista Undici.
It seems that Al-Rumayyan is in the crosshairs of a court in Canada where Saad Aljabri is currently located. It would be a complaint according to which the president of Newcastle, perhaps future patron of 'Mou', could be indicted as directly involved in a three and a half year campaign, from June 2017 to January 2021, to persecute Aljabri and his family. Aljabri is also indicated as a former associate of Mohammed bin Nayef, one of the former heirs to the Saudi throne of Mohammed bin Salman. Why former? Because he was deposed in 2017 and has been in a Saudi prison for almost four years, as always read on 11.
According to the principles of accusation - also reported by the Telegraph - Al-Rumayyan 'would have carried out the instructions of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and could therefore be forced by the Court to pay a fine of 68 million euros'.
Why such a high sum? Because 'at his time, from Riyadh, Aljabri was accused of having subtracted hundreds of millions of euros from state funds intended for anti-terrorism. And - it reads again on 11 - of having secretly worked with the 'services' of other countries, including the United States. The former 007 of Saudi intelligence, of course, denies any kind of illegal activity'.
As The Athletic also writes, the Premier League had accepted Newcastle's acquisition, by the PIF fund, after receiving 'legally binding assurances' that the Saudi government - or rather: the royal family - would not directly manage the club. And yet - concludes 11 - this latest judicial case is highlighting, so to speak, a fairly close link between Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and a prominent figure in Newcastle United's organizational chart: the president.
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