Manchester United could have gone from one controversial owner to another.

Before Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund purchased Newcastle United for $409 million, the owners of another Premier League club reportedly offered the PIF a 30% stake for around £700 million in 2019 — which would currently be worth $787.7 million. 

That team is believed to be Manchester United — the third-highest-valued soccer team in the world at $4.6 billion. Outlets reported in 2019 that PIF chairman Mohammed bin Salman was interested in the club, but the Crown Prince denied any deal had been formed.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF and the Magpies’ chairman, said Newcastle offered the PIF 100% of the club, which Forbes last valued at $381 million — No. 20 on its soccer teams valuation list.

The PIF was also willing to add to its ownership group.

• Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners took 10% after Staveley and her husband — who gave the PIF the takeover opportunity — wanted to join the group. 
• The Reuben Brothers’ RB Sports & Media own the remaining 10%.

“When we looked at it, we looked at it from a financial perspective,” Al-Rumayyan said. “By the way, it wasn’t the first offer we got regarding a football team. We looked in Italy, France, and the U.K. as well.”

Money for Manchester

The news comes after The Daily Mail reported in September that despite Manchester United not officially being on the market, the Glazers are looking for roughly $4.3 billion for the team.

The Glazers, who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have faced pressure to sell the team for how they have handled the club and its finances.

The top 10 highest-paid NHL players are set to make $117.7 million combined this season — only a small increase from last year’s $117.2 million.

For the fourth time in five years, the Edmonton Oilers’ 25-year-old captain Connor McDavid is the NHL’s top earner, set to make $15.3 million before taxes and agents’ fees. 

McDavid is followed by the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin ($14 million), the Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin ($11.9 million), and the New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin ($11.7 million), with the Florida Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews tied for fifth ($11 million).

The combined earnings of the top 10 are barely up from the 2013-14 list, when the top 10 brought in $116.3 million.

• Since then, the NFL’s top 10 saw their earnings jump 46% to $489.1 million.
• MLB’s increased 50%.

Ice Increase

The NHL players’ earnings aren’t jumping like other sports, but recent indications favor an impending spike.

In September, Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon became the highest-paid player in league history with an eight-year, $100.8 million deal.

The league’s salary cap, which hit a record $82.5 million for the 2022-23 season, reportedly could rise around $10 million over the next three years. The cap froze at $81.5 million for the three pandemic-affected seasons.

In June, commissioner Gary Bettman said the league recorded $5.2 billion in revenue over the course of the season.

LIV Golf may have found a way to offer its golfers one of the main things they lost by leaving the PGA Tour.

Through an alliance with the obscure MENA Tour, LIV believes its golfers will be able to earn world rankings points, allowing them to qualify for the majors without other exemptions. 

• The MENA Tour, which begins on Friday in Thailand, has been a member of the Official World Golf Rankings since 2016. 
• The tour submitted the 48-person field from the LIV Golf Invitational-Bangkok to the OWGR, noting that all of them have joined the MENA Tour.
• LIV has sought confirmation from the OWGR regarding whether its players will earn points on its rankings, where they have steadily slid since being banned from the PGA Tour.

LIV golfers will also be able to compete in the roughly 15 events of the MENA Tour, which offer prize purses of around $75,000 — a far cry from the $25 million up for grabs at LIV’s Bangkok tournament.

Making the Cut

The move accelerates the timeline by which the OWGR will have to determine LIV’s status. LIV has submitted an application to the OWGR in July, but faces certain challenges to inclusion based on its format.

The OWGR typically only includes tournaments with a 36-holecut and an average 75-person field, neither of which LIV has. The OWGR also requires tours to follow its guidelines for a year before being included.

The world’s largest online chess platform released its findings on a scandal that has shaken the chess community.

Chess.com’s investigation revealed that 19-year-old grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann likely cheated using computer assistance in more than 100 online chess games, including multiple prize-money events. 

The platform has banned Niemann and removed him from the Chess.com Global Championship, which carries a prize fund of $1 million.

• Though Niemann had previously been suspended from Chess.com for cheating, the scandal began in earnest when world champion Magnus Carlsen dropped out of September’s Sinquefield Cup, forfeiting a chance at its $350,000 purse, after losing to Niemann. 
• Carlsen’s shocking move brought scrutiny to Niemann’s postgame analysis, which other grandmasters called “incoherent” and below what’s expected of a player of Niemann’s rating.
• Niemann’s rating has risen faster than any other player’s in history over a comparable time period.

Chess.com did not make a determination on whether Niemann had cheated during in-person games such as his fateful match against Carlsen, but said that the issue warrants further inquiry. The International Chess Federation (FIDE), the global governing body for the game, is conducting its own investigation.

Who Can Play Magnus?

The kerfuffle has been awkward for Chess.com and Carlsen, who are financially entangled after the platform agreed to acquire the champion’s company Play Magnus for $82.9 million in August.

Chess.com said it did not consult Carlsen on any of its actions surrounding its investigation or decisions to ban him.