A BBC report has stated that a Nigerian consortium has eventually tabled an offer for the Premiership side Newcastle United who are going through an institutional crisis.
Current Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has already declared his intention to get rid of the club and has been in discussion with several potential buyers so far. But none of the those offers have been really concrete.
But now it has emerged that a yet to be named Nigerian consortium is seriously contemplating taking over one of the most successful club in English football history. The figurehead of the consortium, Chris Nathaniel, has confirmed that the Nigerian consortium has indeed made an offer to Newcastle owner Mike Ashley but refused to mention any price.
Nathaniel told the BBC:
“We can’t at this stage [how much], that’s confidential between ourselves and Newcastle, but a bid was put in on Friday evening. There’s been no timeline given by Newcastle but we hope it will be sometime soon.”
The offer is believed to be around the 350 million pound mark. But Ashley might want the Nigerian consortium to hike up their price as he is reported to want no less than 400 million pounds for the club that is expected to be embroiled in a relegation battle this season.
But Chris Nathaniel has also made it clear that if indeed his consortium do takeover Newcastle, then they would not be able to afford to splash money. He said:
“What they don’t want to do is spend a load of money to buy the club and have no money to buy players and to work on what is a quite a troubled infrastructure.”