The takeover of Newcastle United by a consortium backed by Saudi Arabia will get the green light, according to football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire.
A deal for Mike Ashley to sell the club for circa £310 million is understood to be close to completion.
The deal is being brokered by financier Amanda Staveley, with 80 percent of the purchase supported by a Saudi public investment fund, effectively an arm of the country's ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.
The reported deal has drawn criticism from the likes of Amnesty International, who refer to the kingdom's 'abysmal human rights record'.
But speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Maguire says there won't be barriers for Newcastle United's ownership to change hands based on the Premier League's owners' and directors' test.
"Yes I think (the deal) is very likely. We already have Premier League clubs which are owned by people from Russia and China and UAE. Mysterious off-shore funds as well. There is no reason why this shouldn't go ahead. This talk of 'sports washing' where regimes use relationships with sport to try to improve their public relations vehicles is quite common now."
Maguire also doesn't believe the political will would be there within the UK for the deal to be blocked.
"To single out Saudi Arabia would seem very strange, especially when relations between the Saudis and the UK are in the main fairly amicable and it is a big export market. If the Premier League did reject the PIF investment, I think from a political point of view, that would act very negatively."
Sports Direct retail magnate Ashley has been the owner of Newcastle since 2007, but relations between him and the club's supporters at St James' Park have often been strained. The Magpies have been relegated twice from the Premier League during the last 13 years.
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