It is increasingly looking like whichever way the chips fall English Premiership club side Newcastle is going to end up with African owners. The club put up for sale by its owner Mike Ashby for a reported price of £350 million had attracted interest from across the world.

Up to yesterday the leading bid was from a group of yet to be named Nigerian investors whose spokesman Chris Nathaniels has said the bid was said to be in excess of £350 million. They may now have stern competition as the British Newspaper News of the World reports that a South African consortium has jumped into the fray.

The report claims the South African consortium has contacted British Investment Bank Seymour Pierce with respect to the offer. The five man South African consortium is said to have tabled a bid of £350 million for the English club.