Newcastle United’s hierarchy are unlikely to be thrilled at the thought of Conference League football next season.
For Newcastle United, Conference League football would be some comedown following the drug of Champions League euphoria. Diehard fans will relish the bizarre trips to places that are never seen in a standard holiday brochure.
Not to mention the genuine plausibility that Newcastle could win another major honour. As fun as the Champions League was, the Magpies were never going to reign supreme over Europe at this stage of the project.
For the supporters - and reporters - Conference League qualification over nothing is a no-brainer. However, in an increasingly corporate-driven world, the shot-callers at St James’ Park are not as enthusiastic.
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Increased fixture congestion aside, from a financial perspective, there is little to gain. Chelsea scooped just £19million for winning the competition in 2024-25. For context, Newcastle earned around £56million in prize money despite their last-16 humiliation to Barcelona.
Qualification would also force the Magpies to comply with UEFA’s squad-cost ratio system - more stringent than the Premier League. Football financial expert Kieran Maguire outlined why, for the Toon hierarchy, Conference League could perhaps be avoided.
Conference League consequence
“The weird thing is that I think the club finishing eighth in the Premier League is going to end up in a better position than the club finishing seventh that qualifies for the Conference League,” he told talkSPORT. “If you qualify for the Conference League, you have to abide by UEFA's rules, which say that you can only spend 70 per cent of your revenue on player costs.
“If you don't qualify for Europe and finish eighth, you can spend 85 per cent. Albania on a Thursday night, nobody particularly wants to go there from the club apart from the fans. And they certainly don't want to do that from the boardroom point of view.”
Conference League financial breakdown
Maguire also further highlighted the financial contrast between the Champions League and Conference League. He added: “It's a classic case of unintended consequences. What the Premier League wanted to do was give those clubs that were regularly not qualifying for Europe a little bit of a bonus, to try to encourage them to vote in favour of the SCR rules.
“And it has to be remembered that the vote was 14 to 6, so it was the bare majority. Some of the smarter kids in the room have already crunched the numbers and have worked out that you've got this overhang, which does seem crazy.
“If you're in the Champions League, for every £1 you get there, you get 22p in the Europa League itself and only get 11p in the Conference League. As you can see, it's not really worth the effort from the club's financial point of view.
“But football clubs are far more than just about financing. Newcastle United didn't get a lot of money from winning the Carabao Cup last year but they still created memories which will stay with fans forever.”
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