Newcastle's finances were released this week and threw up many questions for Kieran Maguire
Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Jamie Reuben. Inset, Mike Ashley
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Newcastle United’s financial revelations this week contained some outstanding positives as the club looks to close the gap on the Premier League elite - but there remain a number of hurdles.
The Magpies released accounts for last season which show that its revenues rose by £35m on the back of growing commercial operations. But with its wage bill rising significantly and the value of its playing squad going down by nearly £100m, the club benefited from a £128m profit on selling and leasing back St James’ Park to a company owned by the club's directors.
There were record revenues recorded and a 44% increase in commercial income as the club’s turnover rose by £15m to £335.3m despite having no European football. Profit after tax was £34.7m.
“In terms of revenue, the figures are impressive,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told Chronicle Live. “Matchdays are twice that of the Mike Ashley era, a combination of selling more hospitality packages and more matches due to cup success, and sadly for the fans increased prices as well which I think is something they are willing to bear providing the club delivers.
“The huge growth in commercial income is quite staggering. If you benchmark it again against Mike Ashley, when he joined the club they had commercial income of £26m and when he left the club they had commercial income of £28m over a 14-year period. It’s now gone from £28m to £123m under the new owners.”
With increased expectation and success, many costs have also increased at Newcastle. Maguire, while impressed with the revenue drive, admits he still has a number of concerns with the club’s finances.
And while PIF remain hugely ambitious since their takeover four and a half years ago, whether they can significantly close the gap on the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool in order to challenge regularly for trophies and achieve David Hopkinson’s stated aim of being the best in the world by 2030 remains in huge doubt.
Chelsea may have reported record Premier League losses of £232m today, but their revenue of £490.9m still dwarfs what United have achieved. And Maguire says Newcastle were dangerously close to breaching Profit and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) had they not sold the St James' leasehold to a company called PZ Holdings Ltd, whose directors are Magpies directors Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Abdulmajid Alhagbani and Jamie Reuben.
“Wages continue to be an issue,” added Maguire. “Based on my figures it’s the first time in Newcastle’s history that the average weekly wage for a first team player is over £100,000 a week. That’s a function of better contracts and signing players.
“They only spent £40m on player recruitment, though, in 2024/25 so I expect a lot of that wage increase was due to better contracts and bonuses as well, winning the cup etc.
“The main concern for me was that if it had not been for the sale of the real estate, the club’s property, there would have been a substantial loss - probably in the region of £80m-£90m.
“That could have led to a PSR breach but rules are rules and the Premier League rulebook is notoriously weak. Newcastle are simply following in the footsteps of Chelsea and other clubs who have taken advantage. It’s no criticism of the club - I’d have done exactly the same under those circumstances had it been my club.
“As far as the gap between Newcastle and the rest of the big six are concerned, they are all averaging between £600m and £700m a year and you contrast that with Newcastle - yes they’ve had a spectacular, record year with £335m but it does show the extent of the gap and the challenges for a club as ambitious and aspirational as Newcastle under the new owners.
“It’s one that isn’t going to be easy to narrow to make them really competitive.”
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