Inter could have new owners in the near future, with current owners Suning reportedly ready to sell the club to Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF.

This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Libero, who claim that negotiations for the sale have been ongoing for months but that Suning could be ready to make the sale worth €1 billion.

Talks about the potential sale of the club to the Saudi PIF had begun last year, with the current owners Suning considering that their ownership of the club may no longer have been tenable.

Negotiations were put on hold during the Super League project when the Nerazzurri had the prospect of a new revenue source from the breakaway competition that was to be organized by major European clubs.

However, the Super League fell through and Suning began looking seriously once again at the possibility of selling the club.

The Chinese company have been reported to be actively searching for investors in the last few weeks and months, and they could now have reached an agreement with the Saudi PIF who have been looking to buy the club for some time.

Saudi emissaries had reportedly been in Milan to meet with the club further about a potential takeover in September, and the process could be moving along.

The PIF recently bought an 80% share in Premier League club Newcastle United in a deal worth €353 million, but Libero reports that this could just be the beginning of their investment in football clubs.

Reportedly, the fund have also been looking to buy a club in Serie A with Inter their main target as well as French side Marseille and potentially a club in Brazil.

The purchase of the Nerazzurri from Suning would be part of a wider effort by the Saudi PIF to improve the reputation of the Saudi state with which it is associated, which has also included making other large-scale investments.

Should the PIF take over at Inter from Suning then they would also become responsible for the construction of a new stadium along in Milan with AC Milan and the management of the club infrastructure.

The change in ownership from Suning to the PIF would represent a massive shift for the Nerazzurri both in terms of the financial power of the owners, with the Saudi fund having had a turnover of €500 billion in 2020 in comparison to the debt and liquidity problems at Suning, and in terms of the aims and intentions of the owners.

The prospective deal, as with the one which saw the PIF take a controlling interest in Newcastle United, would see the owners competing with fellow sovereign investment fund the Qatar Investment Authority who own Paris Saint-Germain, and would bring to Inter the controversies around ownership by oil-rich gulf states in major Europen clubs.