Newcastle United chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan shares PIF ambition after Amanda Staveley hint

Newcastle United chairman and Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund [PIF] governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has revealed his wealth fund are actively seeking out investment opportunities, including prospective football deals, in Brazil.

The comments, made at the FII Priority event in Rio de Janeiro this week, come just a few months after Magpies co-owner Amanda Staveley admitted the south American country was one of many being assessed as Newcastle look to build a multi-club model similar to Manchester City's.

Pep Guardiola side and 12 others fall under the 'City Football Group' umbrella, with other assets hailing from the likes of France, India, America, Uruguay, Spain and Italy. The purpose of such group is to build a vast network of sporting organisations that can operate in a mutually beneficial way.

READ MORE: Newcastle United transfer news LIVE as Bruno release clause talk played down

READ MORE: The £21 million transfer decision that 'unlocks' Newcastle United's summer plans

Newcastle have also assessed options across Europe, notably Belgium, while PIF already own four clubs in the booming Saudi Pro League. Now, it looks like the Middle Eastern wealth fund are turning their attention to south America.

“We started investing in Brazil back in 2016 through one of our subsidiaries Salic but we continued with the investments from PIF," Al-Rumayyan told the forum. "We’re interested, of course, in technology, renewable energy, mining and hopefully in football too.

“One of the things we’re interested in recreation, entertainment and sports - that’s why we have so many big initiatives in different sports, including football. And I think this is the best place to be discussing football.”

Speaking at the Bloomberg Power Players Summit in Jeddah back in March, Staveley reaffirmed Newcastle's ownership are keen to establish their own bustling multi-club network in the near future.

“I think we are very much (interested in a multi-club model),” Staveley said. “Multi-clubs are part of having football, it’s a real benefit to be able to have players and train players that aren’t part of your squad.

“The Uefa rules are changing and so we have to see what emerges. Obviously, the dynamics around whether we could have a club have changed quite dramatically over the last year. I’m still a very big fan of the multi-club model, a lot of other competitors and friends in the Premier League have multi-club relationships, but it has to be considered as a whole.

“We’ve looked at Belgium, we’ve looked at a lot of European markets, we’ve looked in Asia, Australia, we’ve looked in Brazil — pretty much everything. We’ve looked at every market and getting players through our academy system and through that multi-club model would be very helpful in terms of allowing us to buy and have players as part of our journey earlier on.”