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Amanda Staveley: Football’s new first lady edges closer to buying Newcastle United

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Amanda Staveley

Yorkshire born and bred, Amanda Staveley has become the front-runner to become the newest owner in the Premier League.

The 44-year-old who runs PCP Capital Partners entered a non-disclosure agreement with Newcastle United on Thursday ahead of an anticipated £300m bid for the club.

If Staveley does complete the deal to take over at St James’ Park it’s fair to say Britain’s ‘most glamorous financier’, according to This is Money, will be a departure from Mike Ashley’s reign at the club.

Staveley was once involved romantically with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, before meeting her meeting her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, who worked for her company.

They married in 2011 and they have one child, Alexander (Lexi), who was born after Staveley went into labour during a business meeting. She now splits her time between Dubai and their place on London’s Park Lane.

Personable and powerful, Staveley’s company is backed by a reported £28billion in funds from the Middle East and China and she clearly has her sights set on becoming a big player in football.

So who is the potential next first lady of football?

What does she know about football and sport?

From the business side, plenty. Staveley is no stranger to cutting deals for football clubs.

Spotted in the stands at St James’ Park last week before Ashley formalised his intention to sell the club, Newcastle isn’t the first team on her radar.

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Staveley and PCP helped broker Sheikh Mansour’s takeover of Manchester City from Thaksin Shinawatra in 2009.

And last year the firm were part of a joint bid to take a share in Liverpool which was rejected by the Fenway Sports Group.

She sounded out Liverpool’s American owners but walked away after they slapped a prohibitive £1billion price tag on the club after preliminary buy-out talks.

Staveley also has connections to horse racing.

What is her background?

The daughter of Robert and Lynne Staveley, Amanda retains the Yorkshire accent of her upbringing, and bold business undertakings appear to run in the family.

Her father founded the Lightwater Valley theme park in 1969 while her grandfather, Ralph, was successful running a betting business and, later, Doncaster dog racing track.

Staveley went to Queen Margaret’s School in York where she was keen on sport, particularly athletics and equestrian, though a torn Achilles ended her sporting career.

After leaving school at 16 she took her A-levels in a single year before being accepted into Cambridge’s St Catharine’s College to read modern languages.

Her degree was never completed though after she quit following the death of her grandfather, who she’s said taught her everything she knows.

“I was very young. My grandfather died and I was in a very unhappy period,” she said.

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But rather than go back to Yorkshire, she began her course towards becoming a multi-millionaire.

How did she become such a prominent player in business?

After packing in her degree, Staveley took out a £180,000 loan to open the restaurant Stocks between Cambridge and Newmarket.

With no formal training, she “lived and breathed business and banking” both studying for her future roles in the city and working as a waitress.

It is here Staveley is said to have build her extensive business network in the Middle East from her Newmarket restaurant – brushing shoulders with the region’s wealthy horse owners.

One of these was said to be a major investor in her next venture, the Q.ton conference centre on Cambridge Science Park, before being named Businesswoman of the Year in 2000.

But after selling a 49 per cent stake to EuroTelecom, a company which flopped in the collapse of the Dotcom boom, but after buying back her stake in Q.ton in a complicated deal the company failed.

She’s called herself a “cocky, arrogant bugger” at the time but it was a hard-learned lesson that she’s never looked back from.

Will she be the first lady of football?

Staveley will certainly joined some prominent women at the top of the football tree should she take over at Newcastle.

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At Southampton, Katharina Liebherr maintains a 20 per cent share along with China’s Gao JiSheng, who has majority control.

Karren Brady is perhaps the most public face in the upper echelons of Premier League clubs. Barroness Brady is the vice-chairman of West Ham.

In Scotland, Hearts was effectively rescued by current owner Ann Budge after falling into financial turmoil.

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Crime & Court

Osun police arrest three night guards over alleged murder of 40-year-old man

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A night guard at Ibuowo Estate, Okinni, Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, on Saturday, allegedly shot dead a 40-year-old man, Badmus Mohammed.

The guard, Rasaq Moshood, DAILY POST gathered, shot Mohammed, a tenant, who is popularly called Lasgidi dead with his dane gun.

His Landlord, Kazeem Jimoh told DAILY POST that he was at a bar with the deceased till midnight on Friday, before he was called on phone about his death.

According to Kazeem, his tenant was killed at the front of the house, while his door was left open.

“I and Kazeem were at a bar till past 12 when I left him.

“I didn’t sleep at home but I got a call around 1 a.m. that Lasgidi was killed by a guard. When i got home, I saw his door open, while his corpse was outside,” he said.

The Police spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola confirmed the incident.

She noted that three night guards have been arrested with their dane guns.

According to her, “one Babatunde Olumide, the Chairman of Ibuowo Estate Okinni reported at dada Estate Divisional Police Hqts., that their night guard, one Moshood Rasaq used his dane gun to shoot one Mohammed Badmus, aged 40 years and he died instantly.

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“Suspect has been arrested, gun used has been recovered, while the corpse has been taken to UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital morgue for autopsy.”

Opalola added that the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation.

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Chinese astronauts return to earth after six months in space

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Officials stand near the capsule of the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft after it returned to earth carrying three Chinese astronauts in China’s Inner Mongolia on April 16, 2022. STR / AFP

Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after 183 days in space, ending China’s longest crewed mission as it continues its quest to become a major space power.

The Shenzhou-13 spacecraft was the latest mission in Beijing’s drive to rival the United States, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon.

Live footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust, with the ground crew who had kept clear of the landing site rushing in helicopters to reach the capsule.

The two men and one woman — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping — returned to Earth shortly before 10 am Beijing time (0200 GMT), after six months aboard the Tianhe core module of China’s Tiangong space station.

Ground crew applauded as the astronauts each took turns to report that they were in good physical condition.

Zhai was the first to emerge from the capsule roughly 45 minutes after the landing, waving and grinning at cameras as he was lifted by the ground crew into a specially designed chair before being bundled into a blanket.

“I’m proud of our heroic country,” Zhai said in an interview with CCTV shortly after leaving the capsule. “I feel extremely good.”

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The trio originally launched in the Shenzhou-13 from China’s northwestern Gobi Desert last October, as the second of four crewed missions during 2021-2022 sent to assemble the country’s first permanent space station — Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace.”

Wang became the first Chinese woman to spacewalk last November, as she and her colleague Zhai installed space station equipment during a six-hour stint.

Mission commander Zhai, 55, is a former fighter pilot who performed China’s first spacewalk in 2008, while Ye is a People’s Liberation Army pilot.

The trio have completed two spacewalks, carried out numerous scientific experiments, set up equipment and tested technologies for future construction during their time in orbit.

The astronauts spent the past few weeks tidying up and preparing the cabin facilities and equipment for the crew of the incoming Shenzhou-14, expected to be launched in the coming months.

China’s previous record spaceflight mission length was set by last year’s Shenzhou-12 deployment, which lasted 92 days.

Six months will become the normal astronaut residence period aboard the Chinese space station, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Space race

The world’s second-largest economy has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a permanently crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon.

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The country has come a long way in catching up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have decades of experience in space exploration.

But under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the country’s plans for its heavily-promoted “space dream” have been put into overdrive.

Besides a space station, Beijing is also planning to build a base on the Moon, and the country’s National Space Administration said it aims to launch a crewed lunar mission by 2029.

China has been excluded from the International Space Station since 2011 when the US banned NASA from engaging with the country.

While China does not plan to use its space station for global cooperation on the scale of the ISS, Beijing has said it is open to foreign collaboration although the scope of that cooperation is not yet clear.

The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could remain functional until 2030.

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Putin’s Russia finally invades Ukraine

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Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022.(Photo by Aris Messinis / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday with explosions heard soon after across the country and its foreign minister warning a “full-scale invasion” was underway.

Weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter Putin, who had massed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along the borders of Ukraine.

“I have made the decision of a military operation,” Putin said in a surprise television announcement that triggered immediate condemnation from US President Joe Biden and sent global financial markets into turmoil.

Shortly after the announcement, explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, according to AFP correspondents.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his address to the nation at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 21, 2022. Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP

 

Putin called on Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and justified the operation by claiming the government was overseeing a “genocide” in the east of the country.

The Kremlin had earlier said rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv.

The extent of Thursday’s attacks was not immediately clear, but Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the worst-case scenario was playing out.

“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Kuleba tweeted.

“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”

Biden immediately warned of “consequences” for Russia and that there would be a “catastrophic loss of life and human suffering”.

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NATO’s chief condemned Russia’s “reckless and unprovoked attack” on Ukraine.

Putin’s move came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional appeal late on Wednesday night to Russians not to support a “major war in Europe”.

Speaking Russian, Zelensky said that the people of Russia were being lied to about Ukraine.

Zelensky said he had tried to call Putin but there was “no answer, only silence”, adding that Moscow now had around 200,000 soldiers near Ukraine’s borders.

Earlier on Wednesday the separatist leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk sent separate letters to Putin, asking him to “help them repel Ukraine’s aggression”, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The two letters were published by Russian state media and were both dated February 22.

Their appeals came after Putin recognised their independence and signed friendship treaties with them that include defence deals.

– ‘Moment of peril’ –

Putin had for weeks defied a barrage of international criticism over the crisis, with some Western leaders saying he was no longer rational.

His announcement of the military operation came ahead of a last-ditch summit involving European Union leaders in Brussels planned for Thursday.

The 27-nation bloc had also imposed sanctions on Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and high-ranking figures including the commanders of Russia’s army, navy and air force, another part of the wave of Western punishment after Putin sought to rewrite Ukraine’s borders.

The United Nations Security Council met late Wednesday for its second emergency session in three days over the crisis, with a personal plea there by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Putin going unheeded.

“President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine, give peace a chance, too many people have already died,” Guterres said.

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The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned that an all-out Russian invasion could displace five million people, triggering a new European refugee crisis.

Before Putin’s announcement, Ukraine had urged its approximately three million citizens living in Russia to leave.

“We are united in believing that the future of European security is being decided right now, here in our home, in Ukraine,” President Zelensky said during a joint media appearance with the visiting leaders of Poland and Lithuania.

Western capitals said Russia had amassed 150,000 troops in combat formations on Ukraine’s borders with Russia, Belarus and Russian-occupied Crimea and on warships in the Black Sea.

Ukraine has around 200,000 military personnel, and could call up to 250,000 reservists.

Moscow’s total forces are much larger — around a million active-duty personnel — and have been modernised and re-armed in recent years.

 

– High cost of war –

But Ukraine has received advanced anti-tank weapons and some drones from NATO members. More have been promised as the allies try to deter a Russian attack or at least make it costly.

Shelling had intensified in recent days between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists — a Ukrainian soldier was killed on Wednesday, the sixth in four days — and civilians living near the front were fearful.

Dmitry Maksimenko, a 27-year-old coal miner from government-held Krasnogorivka, told AFP that he was shocked when his wife came to tell him that Putin had recognised the two Russian-backed separatist enclaves.

“She said: ‘Have you heard the news?’. How could I have known? There’s no electricity, never mind internet. I don’t know what is going to happen next, but to be honest, I’m afraid,” he said.

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In a Russian village around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the border, AFP reporters saw military equipment including rocket launchers, howitzers and fuel tanks mounted on trains stretching for hundreds of metres.

Russia has long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining the NATO alliance and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.

Speaking to journalists, Putin on Tuesday set out a number of stringent conditions if the West wanted to de-escalate the crisis, saying Ukraine should drop its NATO ambition and become neutral.

Washington Wednesday announced sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which Germany had earlier effectively suspended by halting certification.

Australia, Britain, Japan and the European Union have all also announced sanctions.

 

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