Who is Amanda Staveley? The rise of the Gulf state fixer
When Newcastle United is finally signed over to the Saudi Public Investment Fund, one woman stands to benefit more than any other
Words: Joseph Bullmore
The Premier League has a great deal in common with the Middle Eastern princehood. There’s the unimaginable wealth and dubious morality; the rapier ambition and wild pomp; the feverish tension and international intrigue; the cars, the mansions, the circus, the power. But the thing that truly links the two worlds is Amanda Staveley.
Staveley is the Gulf fixer extraordinaire — the gilded key stone. She, and she alone, holds aloft the intricate bridge between the desert states and the British footballing complex. Staveley was thrust back into the limelight last week as it emerged that an agreement has been reached for the £300 million purchase of Newcastle United from retail mogul Mike Ashley. The buyers? Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in an echo of the deal Staveley brokered between Manchester City and the Abu Dhabi royal family in 2008.
Amanda Staveley is said to have dated Prince Andrew — and rejected his marriage proposal
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