Newcastle's £300million Saudi Arabian takeover seems to have hit a major stumbling block with the WTO ruling that the Saudi Arabian government has links to an illegal streaming service.  

The Guardian has revealed that a 130-page World Trade Organisation report, which is set to be released next month, will claim that the Saudi government is being "beoutQ", which offers access to illegal streaming of live sporting events.

The Premier League, who are currently considering the Newcastle takeover bid, joined LaLiga, UEFA and FIFA in taking legal action against beoutQ last summer in a bid to halt the games being shown on the service.

“We collectively condemn in the strongest possible terms the ongoing theft of our intellectual property by the pirate broadcaster known as beoutQ and call on the authorities in Saudi Arabia to support us in ending the widespread and flagrant breaches of our intellectual property rights,” the governing bodies said in a joint statement in July 2019 when announcing that they were unable to secure a legal team in Saudi Arabia to pursue the case within the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, headed up by Mohammed bin Salman, are attempting to purchase 80 per cent of the Magpies from their current owner Mike Ashley.