The 3rd of January is the date for Newcastle's arbitration with Premier League
A tribunal has found that the Premier League "abused" its position after being "improperly influenced by" other clubs during the build-up to blocking an Saudi-led takeover at Newcastle United.
A barrister representing Newcastle made the claim in a Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). The tribunal will determine if the league violated anti-competition laws, resulting in losses to Newcastle.
Hearings were held to hear claims by Daniel Jowell QC, a lawyer for BeIn Sports, that "a number" of Premier League clubs and media organisations joined forces in opposing the takeover.
He said that this led to an "unfair use of rules" as well as an "abuse its position which distorted competition".
After a dispute with Mike Ashley, the consortium that was supported by Saudi Arabia reneged on a $300m purchase of Newcastle from Mike Ashley.
The test was to determine if members of Saudi Arabia's ruling regime would be able to become directors of the club. This will also be the subject matter of the owners' and directors’ tests.
Mohammed bin Salman, the ruling leader, is also the chair of the Public Investment Fund, (PIF), which was intended to fund the deal. He denies any human rights violations.
BeIn Sports was embroiled in a dispute with Saudi Arabia about the piracy rights to Premier League matches. The Qatar-based organization owns the rights.
Premier League "threat" to Newcastle
Newcastle has been involved in two legal disputes since the collapse of the deal: the CAT hearing and an arbitration regarding who would manage the club.
During the online CAT hearing, Mr Justice Miles stated that "thousands" of people watched it. Adam Lewis QC, representing the Premier League, said that the arbitration would begin on January 3rd and last "little more than a week".
Jowell stated that Newcastle had suffered losses of "excessive 10m" due to the collapse of the agreement and said that the Premier League had not "carried out its threat to ban the club from participating in the competition".
This is understood to refer to an explanation of ownership rules if both parties fail to reach an agreement.
Jowell said: "If Premier League comes to its senses, and reverses its decision, then we hope [the buyers] might agree to proceed on similar terms.
"But it is not possible to assume that PIF would wait until 2022, the outcome of arbitration, and then proceed on the same terms."
Lewis criticized St James Holdings, Ashley's claimant in relation to the CAT hearing. He claimed it was separate from Newcastle United and Ashley and that it "went over the same information [as arbitration] and in a different forum."
He did however say that if the arbitration determines that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [KSA] is not a director, then the transaction can and should proceed without any question of the directors' and owners' tests applying to KSA.
Mr Justice Miles stated that a decision regarding the CAT would only be made after "going away" and "considering with care" all evidence presented at the hearing.
The Premier League declined to comment.
