“An extraordinary infringement,” LIV Golf’s legal battle contradicts assurances given by Newcastle Saudi owners to Premier League

The LIV Golf series has caused its fair share of controversy since its inception. Enraged, the PGA Tour banned all golfers that defected to the LIV Series from playing on the Tour ever again. The LIV Golf series in reply filed an anti-trust lawsuit for the unfair behaviour of the Tour. The trial is expected to be held in January of 2024, and has been extended several times.

The PGA Tour has retaliated and filed a lawsuit against Greg Norman and the series for the ‘brainwashing’ of golfers.vHowever, now the involvement of a third party could mean severe ramifications for the LIV Golf series and its potential win in the trial. The Premier League has now raised its concerns about the ownership of Newcastle, which is the same as that of LIV Golf.

Just like LIV Golf, the Premier League has made its profits from the PIF of Saudi Arabia. This also meant that during the takeover in 2021 it would be ensured that the Saudi Arabian government would not have any control over Newcastle or the Premier League. Recently, this seems to have come into doubt after information about the LIV Golf series was revealed.

Related: Jordan Spieth admits he ‘would be lying’ if he denied LIV Golf’s influence on the PGA Tour

Could Premier League’s involvement with the LIV Golf series mean another postponement in the PGA TOUR trial?

Documents that the LIV Series has submitted states that the chairman of Newcastle is Yasir Al Rumayyan, who is a sitting member of the Saudi Arabian Government. “The order is an extraordinary infringement on the sovereignty of a foreign state that is far from justified here,” read the document by LIV Golf

“The PIF and His Excellency Yasir Othman Al Rumayyan are not ordinary third parties subject to basic discovery relevance standards. They are a sovereign instrumentality of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a sitting minister of the Saudi government, and they cannot be compelled to provide testimony and documents in a US proceeding unless their conduct, not LIV’s or anyone else’s, is truly the ‘gravamen’ of the case.”

The LIV Golf series tried to defend the PIF and Al Rumayyan for sovereign reasons, and this was a grave infarction for the Premier League considering that the owners of both are the same. The deal with Newcastle would not have happened in the first place, unless for the legally binding contracts that the Premier League put in place.

Since then, Newcastle has managed to bag a place in the Champions League. However, these new documents could spell trouble for the PIF. Norman, the CEO of the LIV Series himself is a good friend of Al Rumayyan. These changes might mean a postponement in trials once again, which is not a good sign for the Saudi backed series.

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