Newcastle United co-chairman Amanda Staveley has expressed sadness at Roman Abramovich having his ownership of Chelsea "taken away".
Staveley has been front and centre of Newcastle's takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) in October of last year, taking a 10 per cent stake in the firm and operating as co-chairman of the club along with her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi.
Staveley, who had acted as an advisor to Manchester City's 2008 takeover by Abu Dhabi’s Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, and had wanted to engineer an acquisition of Liverpool that same year, as well as aiding Chinese interest in the club in 2015, has been a lightning rod for criticism of PIF's involvement at Newcastle.
The takeover deal took a long time to get over the line, with the Premier League initially unhappy at the proof that the PIF and Saudi state were separate entities.
That, allied with the abhorrent human rights record meant that theirs was a takeover that was not met warmly by Premier League fans and clubs alike.
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Speaking at the Financial Times' Business of Football Summit in London on Thursday, Staveley was quizzed about PIF and Saudi, and stated her position on Roman Abramovich's decision to sell Chelsea after facing the threat of sanctions due to his alleged links with Russian president Vladimir Putin, with Russian businesses and wealthy individuals facing severe sanctions following Putin's decision to invade neighbouring Ukraine using military force.
"We should always be held to task and you should always question that," said Staveley.
"PIF run the club as an autonomous institution that runs the club separately.
"This world is always going to have geo-political issues. This world is never not going to have problems. I know that is really hard.
"I am sad someone (Abramovich) will have a club taken away from them because of a relationship they may have with someone. I don't think that is particularly fair, to be honest. But I also think we have to hold all of our relationships to account.
"With Saudi, it is an incredibly important country that I love. I love the people there, it is a young vibrant population and I have seen Saudi change so much. I'm not talking now as Newcastle, I am talking as me and these are my thoughts.
"I would rather everybody get excited about football than being involved in war. If we can create great content, the Premier League is a really great league and we have a tough game ahead of us."
Staveley, who had appeared in the Liverpool directors box in 2008 when she had tried to negotiate a deal with Tom Hicks and George Gillett to sell to a consortium in the Middle East, was back on the scene in 2015 when she attempted to broker a deal with FSG and China Everbright, a major financial services provider.
But it was while watching Liverpool that Staveley claimed she and her husband fell in love with Newcastle, watching a 1-1 draw for the Magpies against Jurgen Klopp's Reds in the North East on October 1, 2017.
"There was only one club for us, there will only ever be one club for us and we like the challenge of trying buy something at 20th position in the league and trying to take it to the top," Staveley said.
"Mehrdad (Ghodoussi) and I had been looking since after I did Manchester City in 2008, where I was an advisor. In my career I had always been keen to be part of a team to buy another Premier League club.
"I love sport, I love football and I'm passionate about the Premier League.
"We wanted to buy something that we could grow and would have value. We initially looked at great partners, we worked with PCP and looked at a number of big clubs. We looked at clubs in Europe and the Premier League and we got the chance while having a look at Liverpool and going to a Liverpool/Newcastle game, we went there and fell madly in love with the fans, team and passion and eventually alighted on Newcastle.
"Once we left Newcastle we knew we needed a global partner with deep pockets, and the PIF team were engaged from day one."
Staveley, who once met with the Spirit of Shankly supporters group to present a takeover case back in 2008, is unlikely to have gain much support for her controversial stance on Abramovich, with her views in opposition to those held by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.
Masters, speaking at the same Financial Times summit, said on Abramovich selling Chelsea: "It is the right decision. It is unsustainable in the current environment. While there is a war going on, sport and Russia cannot mix."
