Newcastle United's squad cost more to assemble than Barcelona's and AC Milan's.
That is according to a new UEFA report, the European club finance and investment landscape, which association president Aleksander Ceferin called the 'ultimate guide to European football finances'. Among the findings in the report was a sharp contrast in spending between English clubs and foreign sides with the [Premier League](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/barclays-premier-league) boasting the four most expensive squads and nearly half (nine) of the top 20 most valuable squads last year.
Although [Newcastle's](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/all-about/newcastle-united-fc) spending has been slowed by PSR rules, following three frustrating transfer windows, UEFA have revealed that the Magpies' squad cost €543m (£456.56m) to put together - which was more than what Barcelona, Napoli, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid and AS Roma shelled out.
Newcastle have a long way to go to bridge the gap on Barcelona (£642.15m), revenue wise, but, according to UEFA, the black-and-whites have brought in more income than Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and Marseille. The Magpies, of course, are fresh from announcing a club-record turnover following a 28% rise in income to £320.3m as well as a £60.7m drop in losses. These sorts of figures will have undoubtedly been welcomed by Ceferin.
“While most clubs appear to be managing player wage increases responsibly, other costs are rising rapidly, putting greater pressure on operating margins than ever before," the UEFA president wrote. "The clubs must remain vigilant as considerable work still needs to be done to restore pre-pandemic profitability."
Newcastle will continue to be restricted to losses of £105m over a rolling three-year period next season, as per the Premier League's PSR rules, but the Magpies are trialling top-to-bottom anchoring as well as squad cost rules in shadow. Squad cost rules will limit on-pitch spending to 85% of revenue and net profit/loss on player sales for those sides who are not in Europe and 70% for those clubs competing in Europe. Adopting the squad cost ratio model would see the Premier League mirror UEFA's rules, which would be welcomed by Andrea Traverso, UEFA's director of financial sustainability and research.
"English clubs, despite their record level of revenues surpassing the €7bn mark and totalling almost as much as Spain and Germany combined, contributed 73% of the entire European net losses," he said. "The persistence of similar levels of net losses in 2024 urges the coordinated implementation of tighter domestic cost control mechanisms that are fully aligned with European regulations in order to ensure the financial sustainability of the entire European football ecosystem in the long-term."