Exclusive: Blades given royal approval to continue making big calls at Bramall Lane

Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who has a 50 per cent stake in the Blades and is co-owner with Kevin McCabe, has brought in new directors in Abdulraham Bin Abdullah (the Prince’s son), James Phipps (the Prince’s principal adviser) and Selahattin Baki (a Turkish businessman).

But chief executive Julian Winter will continue to run the club and, unlike some foreign owners, Prince Abdullah is happy with the set-up as he moves into football club ownership.

“Prince Abdullah is very good about delegating things. The authorised, delegated person to run the club is Julian Winter,” said Phipps, who helped negotiate the Blades deal.

“We are not doing a damn thing in getting in the way of him running the club.

“If they’re executing the system which management has proposed to us and was approved by the board, then I think we should stay out of their hair.

“I think the moment we try to make big decisions from afar is the moment we put the whole investment at risk.

“Better to have management you support and believe in and let them do their job. I think here that’s the case.”

Phipp admitted that 50-50 partnerships are “perilous” and stressed it was only because the Prince and McCabe struck an instant bond that the Saudi Arabian royal relented in his wish to have full control of the football club.

“The Prince and I have gone through a lot of materials, read books about Sheffield. It’s been a huge learning experience,” said Phipps, who is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, like the Prince.

“As we have learned about the club, the deal started to snap into shape.

“We put together this deal, which took account of the great contributions of the McCabes, the current posture of the club, and a mechanism for optimising Prince Abdullah’s monies so it would improve the on-pitch performances.

“It was very late in the process when the decision was actually made that we were going to do this.

“We were patient to work through the facts and put together a deal that would be attractive, balanced, because 
50-50 partnerships are perilous.

“When you choose your partner – all partners disagree with each other at some point in time – choose the person you are going to have disagreements with, argue with, someone you can argue with constructively.

“It has to be someone who’s not going to be pushing the panic button at the first sign of distress.

“The McCabes are passionate about the club, have strong opinions, but they are also grown-ups and have the ability to be good joint-venture partners.”

Compromising on full control, the Prince also ditched plans to buy a Championship club because of the lure of getting involved with the Blades.

“In the beginning, one of the parameters was the Prince would want to control whatever he bought,” said Phipps.

“So, the Prince made two parameter compromises. One was going to League One, the other was not having control.

“The decision that we could do a joint venture was very much a by-product of the nature of our interaction over the better part of nine months.

“In an ideal world, this will continue to be a 
50-50 partnership on into the Premiership years of ownership.

“It’s like a marriage, intended to be a long-term relationship.

“Not only will we try, we will be completely successful with the McCabes in keeping our disagreements businesslike, resolving them in a businesslike fashion.

“Prince Abdullah is a straightforward guy, he dislikes spending energy on conflict, he is not the lawsuit type. He doesn’t have a litigious bone in him.

“He would rather find a way to move forward, and we don’t always insist on getting our own way. We see that in the McCabes and if we run our relationship like the negotiations we will be just fine.”