Bin Ladens in bid to buy UK football team???

Bin Laden family in bid to buy Newcastle.

A wealthy construction company run by the family of terrorist Osama bin Laden has emerged as a shock front-runner to buy Newcastle United, a source with links to the club claimed last night.

The Saudi Bin Laden Group, whose chief executive is Osama's half-brother, Bakr bin Laden, and which was founded by their father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden, is said to be considering a 300 million plus deal to buy the club and then carry out a lucrative redevelopment of St James' Park and land surrounding the ground.

Although the Bin Laden family publicly distanced itself from the founder of Al-Qaeda years before he claimed responsibility for the September 11 atrocities in 2001, any takeover would be football's most controversial yet, as well as taking the number of foreign-owned teams in the Premier League to 10, or half of England's biggest clubs.

Neither the team, it's representatives or the Bin Laden Group had any comment.

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(another tip of the hat to TROP)