Amnesty International request meeting with Premier League.
The Premier League has urge to meet with the Amnesty International after the Newcastle take over by Saudi consortium.
Amnesty UK boss Sacha Deshmukh has written to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters requesting a meeting to discuss proposed changes to the English top flight’s owners’ and directors’ test.
A consortium led by Saudi-based Public Investment Fund was given Premier League approval last week to take control of Newcastle, sparking widespread criticism due to the Middle East country’s poor human rights record.
Amnesty International described the reported £305m deal as “an extremely bitter blow for human rights defenders”.
Deshmukh said: “The way the Premier League waved this deal through raises a host of deeply troubling questions about sportswashing, about human rights and sport, and about the integrity of English football.
“How can it be right that the Premier League’s current owners’ and director’s test has nothing whatsoever to say about human rights?
“The events of last week will have lent even more urgency to the Government’s ongoing review of the governance of English football.
“Football is a global sport on a global stage – it urgently needs to update its ownership rules to prevent those implicated in serious human rights violations from buying into the passion and glamour of English football.
“We hope that Richard Masters will see that making the football’s ownership rules human rights-compliant can only be for the long-term good of the game.”
