Newcastle United board set for imminent change


 
 
 
 
 
 

On Friday 12 July 2024, the Newcastle United owners announced that Amanda Staveley would step down from all her positions with the club, including from the Newcastle United board.

News that was met with a wide spectrum of reactions from Newcastle United fans.

Many greeting the news with astonishment, not seeing it coming at all.

Whilst a minority of supporters greeted the club’s official announcement (see below) with no surprise whatsoever. Their view that this was all but guaranteed to happen as we approached three years post-takeover, Amanda Staveley having played her role in helping to get the deal done and then assisting in the tricky immediate period following the departure of Mike Ashley.

Ashley who had ensured that this was a club that had been diminished to a skeleton staff, with no recognisable high-level executive team to run Newcastle United day to day, nor a proper Newcastle United board to operate above that.

Instead, a quite ridiculous state of affairs whereby Lee Charnley was the only officially named executive helping to run the club day to day AND the only person making up the Newcastle United board! Named as a single board member to satisfy the legalities, whilst Ashley relied on certain members of his Sports Direct inner circle to remotely oversee his NUFC interests.

This is the current position with the Newcastle United board.

Starting with the day of the takeover, these are the Newcastle United board appointments and resignations, as per the filings at Companies House that are available for the public to see:

Amanda Staveley – Joined the Newcastle United board on 7 October 2021.

Jamie Reuben – Joined the Newcastle United board on 7 October 2021.

Lee Charnley – Left the Newcastle United board on 7 October 2021.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan – Joined the Newcastle United board on 2 December 2021

Majed Al Sorour  – Joined the Newcastle United board on 12 May 2022 and left on 14 December 2022.

Majed Al Sorour  – Left the Newcastle United board on 14 December 2022.

Abdulmajid Ahmed Alhagbani – Joined the Newcastle United board on 23 February 2023.

Asmaa Mohammed Rezeeq – Joined the Newcastle United board on 23 February 2023.

Amanda Staveley – Left the Newcastle United board on 12 July 2024, as confirmed by Companies House update on 22 July 2024.

As you can see, at the moment, the Newcastle United board has only four members currently, those are:

Jamie Reuben, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Abdulmajid Ahmed Alhagbani and Asmaa Mohammed Rezeeq.

Now though, i-news have reported that Newcastle United are set to appoint a new board member, a new addition who will be representing the Reuben family side of things, along with Jamie Reuben. The club now owned 85 percent by Saudi Arabia PIF and 15 percent by the Reubens.

As you can see above, three Saudi Arabia PIF representatives currently on the Newcastle United board, NUFC Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan as well as Saudi Arabia PIF officials Abdulmajid Al-Hagbani and Asmaa Rezeeq.

Looking from the outside, it appeared that as well as being very much the public face of Newcastle United, Amanda Staveley had ever increasingly become the link between the UK side of things with Newcastle United and the Saudi Arabia PIF.

Amanda Staveley regularly reported as travelling back and forwards between the two countries, no doubt updating and coordinating with NUFC Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and others who are part of the Saudi Arabia PIF side of things.

The question always was, for me at least, whether it would be Jamie Reuben now taking on a far more public and hands-on role at the club?

Maybe we now have the answer, a new Newcastle United board member taking that more hands-on role. Especially as in these near three months since Amanda Staveley left, there doesn’t appear to have been much, if any, change with Jamie Reuben remaining in the background.