Premier League referendum set to strike rivals of Aston Villa, Man Utd and Brighton

Premier League clubs are getting prepared to vote on whether a temporary ban should be implemented to halt teams from loaning players from sides under shared ownership. The referendum, which has been arranged to take place on Tuesday November 21, could result in an immediate change ahead of the January transfer window.

To go ahead, a majority of at least 14 out of 20 clubs need to be in favour. In reality, this is likely as only a handful of clubs in the English top flight have strong affiliations with teams abroad. Newcastle United, who are direct rivals to Aston Villa, Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion in the race for Europe, would be heavily hit by such a rule change.

The Magpies, who are owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, have been heavily linked with signing players from the Saudi Pro League. As the division has the same shared majority owner as Newcastle, no loans could be completed. Former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves' rumoured switch, for example, wouldn't be able to go through. The same obstruction would also apply to stars at Al-Hilal, Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr.

Newcastle technical director Dan Ashworth was recently asked about whether United could be stopped from signing players from Saudi Arabia - and the former Brighton man acknowledged that the club could face hurdles: “The current rules and regulations say there is nothing to stop [Newcastle doing deals with Saudi Pro League clubs]. Currently. 

“But there is a potential that the various different organisations will look at things across related parties and what you can do to acquire players at a fair market value, which have already been in place for quite a while.” Should the vote end in favour of an adjustment to the rules, it would surely boost Newcastle's rivals in some capacity.