She was speaking after a whirlwind couple of days during which the logjam surrounding the consortium bid for Newcastle was suddenly brushed aside after resistance from the Premier League, the English football authority, evaporated.

“The logjam was over control, and those issues have been resolved. We would like to thank the Premier League for all of its hard work over the last few months getting us here today, and that is essentially what broke the logjam.”

Stavely first approached Newcastle owner Mike Ashley with a proposal to acquire the club in 2017, but various approaches were resisted until the PIF got involved in late 2019.

“It has taken us four years to get here and we need to just go in and do a full review, both on the football side and the commercial side, and we will come back and make those investment decisions over the near term,” she said.

In addition to around GBP300m ($408.6 million) to purchase Ashley’s shares, the Saudi-led consortium is also committed to spending $340.5 million on the football club and other related facilities in the northeast of England.

“Most important for me is the academy, and to get investment to all areas of the club, from all sides,” Stavely said.