Newcastle United could be forced to sell big name stars to comply with FFP regulations

The club has spent in excess of £400 million since the takeover was completed in October 2021. Credit: PA

Newcastle United CEO Darren Eales has admitted that the club could be forced to sell some of their biggest names in order to comply with Financial Fairplay (FFP) regulations.

The Magpies, who are 80% owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, are considered one of the world’s richest football clubs, but must operate within profit and sustainability rules set by the Premier League and UEFA.

The club has spent in excess of £400 million since the takeover was completed in October 2021, but were forced to curb their ambitions in the summer transfer window in order to comply with the regulations.

The club has revealed their financial figures for the for the year ending 30 June 2023; posting a loss of £73.4 million, largely from player acquisitions, but it falls within permitted FFP limits.

Discussing the results, Eales confirmed that the club could be forced to move on the likes of Bruno Guimarães, Alexander Isak or Sven Botman to make long-term improvements.

Bruno Guimarães, Alexander Isak and Sven Botman are among Newcastle's most popular assets. Credit: PA

When a player is bought FFP costs are spread across the duration of their contract up to a period of five years in a process of amortisation. However, when a player is sold the funds immediately enter the club's accounts which creates the financial headroom required to make further additions.

“It's just the nature of the beast. If you trade players on, it creates more headroom," he explained. "You have to keep growing that headroom, increasing commercial revenue and player trading.

“It’s difficult to hypothesise, but if we’re offered £1 billion for one of those players, then no one could argue against that making sense."

“Any decision we make will always be against the backdrop of the medium to long-term benefit for the club. It’s difficult to say specifically on certain players, but I can say that, if we’re going to get to where we want to get to, at times it is necessary to trade your players."

The financial figures also show how the club has grown off the pitch – turnover increased by £70.3m (39%) from £180 million to £250.3 million, while an operating loss of £26.4 million was transformed into a profit of £20.1 million.

The financial results do not include figures from the club's return to the Champions League. Credit: PA

The results do not include projected revenue of at least £37 million from the club’s involvement in this season’s Champions League, nor income from new sponsorship deals with Sela and Adidas.

The club's revenue remain a long way off the clubs within the Premier League's "big six" but efforts to close the gap are ongoing with an expansion of St James' Park one possibility.

“To put it into perspective, we want to be a top-six sustainable club and Tottenham’s latest accounts available, (total revenue) was £440 million," Eales said. "We are at £250 million, so there is a big step even to the lower end of the top six.

“We have also seen that Manchester City are £710 million in revenue in their latest accounts. There is a long way to go in growing those revenues.”

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