Dundee United bid to buy Newcastle Jets

Scottish Premiership club Dundee United have made an offer to buy embattled A-League outfit Newcastle Jets, according to the latter’s owner.

Cash-strapped former mining magnate Nathan Tinkler, who has owned the Jets since September 2010, revealed on Wednesday that he has an offer on the table from United.

The Tannadice Park-based club have been linked with the Jets for months with chairman Stephen Thompson having confirmed in February that United is interested in taking advantage of Australia’s “growth market” for football.

According to Tinkler that interest is set to become concrete, although he has put the Jets into voluntary administration to get the deal done after he failed to pay Newcastle’s staff and players on May 15.

That failure saw Football Federation Australia (FFA) issue an ultimatum on Monday that Tinkler pay his debts by Wednesday or it would take over the Jets’ licence.

“I’ve been in negotiations with the FFA over the last few days and wasn’t able to get them to guarantee the licence and I haven’t been willing to pay wages unless they guaranteed that so I’ve put the club into administration just now,” Tinkler told the Daily Telegraph.

“We’ve had an offer in for a couple of weeks from Dundee United. That offer is well in excess of the debts of the club and I’ve asked the administrator to get that sale done and that will see everyone get paid.

“Then, I can move on. The only risk to that is if the FFA decide to act in a morally bankrupt manner and take the licence and that presents a whole bunch of other issues.”

Newcastle finished last in the A-League in 2014-15 with 17 points from 27 matches, while Dundee United could finish as high as fourth in the Premiership with one game remaining this term.

If the sale goes through, United will become the third British club with an active involvement in the A-League.

Melbourne City are owned by City Football Group, who own Manchester City, while Everton have an official player-development partnership with Central Coast Mariners.