Saudi TV piracy ruling puts Newcastle takeover under renewed scrutiny

Fresh pressure has been put on the Premier League to reject a controversial £300m takeover of Newcastle by a Saudi-backed consortium after Fifa and Uefa heavily criticised Saudi Arabia for supporting a pirate service that illegally streamed football matches.

The forceful response from world and European football’s governing bodies came after the World Trade Organization ruled that the pirate beoutQ service was “operated by individuals or entities subject to the criminal jurisdiction of Saudi Arabia” and said the Saudi state had breached intellectual property rights by failing to tackle it.

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The ruling, first revealed by the Guardian last month, also found that Saudi Arabia had repeatedly stopped sporting bodies, including the Premier League, from taking legal action against beoutQ there.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, is also the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is seeking a 80% stake in Newcastle. The WTO ruling will increase the scrutiny on the Premier League’s decision over whether to approve the takeover.

It is more than 10 weeks since the consortium contacted the league for approval – a process expected to take about 30 days. In the league’s owners’ and directors’ test there is a reference to digital piracy being a disqualifying factor and a clause requiring any prospective owner or director to have never provided “false, misleading or inaccurate information” in their dealings with the league. How closely the Saudi state and the Saudi PIF are aligned is being heavily investigated by Premier League lawyers.

The Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, declined to comment but in a statement Fifa condemned what it called the “active involvement and support that has been provided by Saudi Arabia in the past three years” for the beoutQ service.

“Fifa agrees with the WTO panel’s recommendations and demands that Saudi Arabia takes the necessary steps in order that it conforms to its obligations under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement with immediate effect in order to protect legitimate media rights partners, such as BeIN, and also football itself,” it said.

“The WTO panel’s recommendations are clear and piracy of football matches is an illegal activity and will not be tolerated on any level.”

Uefa pointed out that beoutQ was hosted on Arabsat, based on Riyadh and majority Saudi-owned. “What is clear is that beoutQ’s broadcasts constitute piracy of Uefa’s matches and as such, are illegal. BeoutQ was hosted on frequencies transmitted by Arabsat and was promoted and carried out by individuals and entities subject to Saudi Arabia’s territorial jurisdiction. Piracy not only threatens that investment but also the existence of professional sport as we know it.”

The WTO report followed a complaint by Qatar over the piracy of its broadcaster beIN Sports, which holds the rights to show Premier League games in the Middle East.

In its evidence to the WTO, beIN claimed the Saudi government and senior figures had promoted piracy in “governmental tweets” and via giant screens in public gatherings during the 2018 World Cup.

BeoutQ has since been removed from Arabsat. However, beoutQ illegal set-top boxes which allow the streaming of major broadcasters, including Sky and BT, are still widely available across the region.

In a statement following the WTO ruling the Saudi Arabian government said it had a “strong record of protecting intellectual property and is committed to applying its national law and procedures in full conformity with WTO rules”.