You’re taking words out of context in order to create a false narrative though. The letter says ‘we would strongly suggest that you interrogate this deal and ask the PL to do the same’ which in context was clearly in relation to piracy issue, nothing more nothing less. Conflating this with competition law, which lets not forget, has as its primary purpose to protect the rights of the consumer against price fixing and profiteering from retailers or manufacturers price fixing, is fanciful imo. Your last paragraph I agree with, that’s the crux of the entire matter and always has been, is PIF - that is headed up by the head of state, that’s investing State money and reports to a Govt dept also headed up by the same head of State, not controlled by the State, and in fact a completely separate entity free from interference....
They made a good point last night about this. The prem tried to hire a number of Saudi law firms regarding the piracy issue. Why did they not approach a Saudi law firm on the matter of separation? Is this because in Saudi PIF and the state are already deemed as separate?
Come on Tobes - you’re and intelligent fella, you really think there’s no agenda and it’s all above board?
Separate according to our Government. Separate according to the WTO. Separate according to the Saudi Court. And so on and so on but not to the PL. Sorry...and so on and so on but not to the PL once puppet Hoffman was appointed.
I’ve said from the off that the issue for the PL was the piracy and the fact that the Saudis had blocked the PL together with UEFA, FIFA and La Liga from pursuing the case in the Saudi courts. Without the piracy issue they’d have cleared it imo. The rest of it, from human rights to the supposed cartel plotting against it, is just fluff imo.
Even in the unlikely event this is all it was, KSA have complied with everything since then and more. Why, then, are the PL still digging heels in?
Classic quote fail. Am in the middle of cleaning my fish tank and cba to fix it. Seems Tobes doesn't like the answer to that simple question
You, me, most on here, plus Mike, Amanda, Nick, Dick and Gary all know the truth. I was just interested as to what Tobes, who thinks all the legal stuff will fall the way of the PL, thinks.
Hence why separation is key. Interestingly, the PL seem to be alone in believing PIF/ KSA to be the same. Their subjective opinion, when they should be looking at objectively. Objectively, what would a reasonable person conclude having access to the same facts as the PL. PIF is recognised as separate by the UK Government ( the Attorney General past and present have commented on the legsl status), the EU and US. When PIF was set up the state controlled the fund. Set up by Royal Decree and over time, the Saudi's have created delegated legislation to effectively allow PIF to operate autonomously of state policy and influence. MBS does not rule PIF. His father put powers in place to stop interference in business matters. MBS is a figurehead chairman with little influence on policy and investment decisions. Yasser Al Rumayyan and Bander Mogren (CEO of Gulf Bank) effectively run PIF as a separate legal entity. They operate as a wealth fund to benefit the Saudi economy to encourage investment but do not answer to the Royal family. That power vanished years ago. The sole purpose of PIF these days is investment since the Saudis recognise that oil wealth will one day be irrelevant.