PIF ‘directly funding’ Newcastle United’s rivals as £750m deal already officially confirmed

The summer of 2025 has already delivered headline-grabbing developments in world football, and among the most significant is the Public Investment Fund’s growing influence across the sport.

PIF, best known to English football fans as the ownership group behind Newcastle United, has officially struck a major deal with FIFA, confirming its role as a headline sponsor for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup.

The tournament, set to unfold later this month in the United States, features elite clubs from around the globe, including Premier League giants Manchester City and Chelsea.

While the deal cements Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to entrench itself further in the global football landscape, it also paints a more complex picture for Newcastle United and its long-term prospects under PIF ownership.

This partnership is not PIF’s first foray into FIFA-aligned ventures. Saudi Arabia already secured the rights to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, a staggering development in itself, but the latest sponsorship of the Club World Cup illustrates an even deeper relationship with football’s most powerful governing body.

PIF has also invested heavily in DAZN, the main broadcaster of the tournament, with its subsidiary SURJ Sports Investment injecting $1 billion into the streaming giant earlier in the year.

That dual involvement—financial backing of both the competition and its media partner—demonstrates how Saudi Arabia is not merely participating in world football but actively shaping its direction and commercial future.

According to industry expert Adam Williams, the financial strategy behind this investment suggests more than just a passion for the sport.

He highlighted that the media rights for the Club World Cup were originally pitched at an astronomical £3 billion, a figure the industry viewed with skepticism. Eventually, the rights were sold for just over £750 million, a number still considered far beyond the real market value for a tournament in its infancy.

Williams noted that interest and ticket sales have not aligned with FIFA’s lofty projections, raising concerns that the current hype surrounding the expanded competition feels artificial and desperate.

Despite its potential to become a marquee global event in future iterations, the 2025 edition lacks organic excitement and is being driven largely by financial muscle and strategic media promotion.

These developments have significant implications for Newcastle United. Though PIF owns the club and has invested considerably since taking over, Williams believes this new deal signals that the Magpies are no longer the centerpiece of the fund’s football ambitions.

Instead, Newcastle appears to be just one element in a much broader, global football strategy. That reality could be unsettling for fans who hoped their club would sit at the heart of PIF’s sporting empire.

Instead, Newcastle may find itself indirectly helping rival clubs flourish. For instance, if Chelsea triumph in the Club World Cup, they could collect nearly £100 million in prize money.

That windfall would provide a massive financial buffer amid increasingly tight Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and allow Chelsea to remain competitive in transfer markets, inadvertently supported by the same ownership group backing Newcastle.

Williams also pointed out that PIF’s other football investments—such as its Saudi Pro League clubs purchasing high-fee players from Premier League sides—have already aided Newcastle’s direct competitors.

These transactions, often seen as overpriced by observers, help English clubs balance their books and avoid PSR penalties. By participating in such deals, PIF is, whether intentionally or not, enabling rival teams to strengthen while Newcastle continues to grapple with financial limitations.

This broader strategic play suggests that while Newcastle remains a part of PIF’s vision, it is far from the primary focus.

Those financial restrictions have indeed become a major obstacle for Newcastle United. The club wants to bolster its squad during the summer transfer window, yet PSR constraints have tied the hands of its recruitment team.

The only viable routes for improvement lie in securing lucrative sponsorship deals or generating revenue through player sales—neither of which aligns easily with the club’s current ambitions.

Newcastle’s reluctance to sell key players means they must look elsewhere to meet financial compliance, making the need for external investment and commercial partnerships more urgent than ever.

Being back in the Champions League has offered some relief, opening up additional revenue streams that could, in time, ease their PSR burden.

Williams estimates that Newcastle’s revenue could rise to £400 million by next season, a significant step forward. However, compared to the indirect financial benefits their rivals may enjoy from PIF’s global ventures, it’s a modest gain.

Newcastle may have the backing of one of the wealthiest investment entities in sport, but when that entity is also underwriting competitions and broadcasting deals that benefit other top-tier clubs, the path to domestic and continental dominance becomes more complicated.

In the bigger picture, PIF’s sponsorship of the Club World Cup and its growing entanglement with FIFA represent a calculated push for influence at the highest level of the sport.

Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it wants to be a global powerhouse in football, and its strategy stretches far beyond one Premier League club. For Newcastle United, that presents both opportunity and challenge.

On one hand, they remain part of a sweeping international blueprint that includes some of the most powerful entities in football. On the other hand, they risk being overshadowed within that vast machinery, caught between financial regulations and shifting ownership priorities.

As the tournament kicks off in the United States and the countdown to the 2034 World Cup begins, Newcastle’s place in the PIF empire continues to evolve—perhaps not as its crown jewel, but certainly as a cog in its ever-expanding wheel of football ambition.