Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan will hold the position of chair in the new PGA Tour-LIV Golf commercial entity. The bombshell news emerged on Tuesday as the two feuding organisations agreed to merge in a monumental ruling that will change golf forever.
The pair had been engaged in a bitter legal feud since August last year after 11 pro-golfers, who were suspended from PGA events after playing in Saudi-backed LIV tournaments, sued the PGA for allegedly using its power to 'stifle competition and punish defectors.' Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) funds LIV Golf.
However, the litigation will be dropped after the two rival golf commissions agreed to become one. "This is a historic day for the game we all know and love," said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
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Al-Rumayyan, who heads Newcastle's board of directors and is chair of the PIF, will now head the board of the directors for the currently unnamed partnership when it comes into effect.
A San Francisco court recently approved the PGA Tour's request to include PIF chair and Magpies chairman Al-Rumayyan in its lawsuit and ordered them to produce documents in the case. However, PIF challenged that order, arguing both the wealth fund and its governor Al-Rumayyan "are not ordinary third parties subject to basic discovery relevance standards".
This prompted backlash from the wider community, with Amnesty International insisting those claims contradicting the 'legally binding' assurances made to the Premier League when PIF took over Newcastle.
The incredible golf announcement comes 24 hours after PIF announced they would be purchasing 75 per cent stakes in four of Saudi Arabia's biggest football clubs. The Saudi wealth fund plan to buy majority stakes in Al-Ahli, Al-Hilal, Al-Ittihad and Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr.
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