On Tuesday Premier League side Newcastle Untied announced a healthy $16 million profit for the financial year ending June 2013.
But don’t expect the good news to stop there, as since then Newcastle has also sold prized asset Yohan Cabaye to Paris Saint-Germain for $30 million in January, as the North east club seems to be making much-maligned owner Mike Ashley a tidy profit each year.
In 2011-12 the club made a profit of just $2.4 million, but with that figure increasing significantly this year, it must be down to not spending money on new players, right?
On the contrary Newcastle shelled out over $42 million on new players in 2012-13, as the likes of Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran, Massadio Haïdara, Moussa Sissoko and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa all signed in January 2013.
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The club has also released the wage bill for the entire playing staff, and it has decreased slightly from $96 million to $93 million and the Magpies wage-to-turnover ratio now stands at 64 per cent, which is a down four per cent on last year. All of this bodes quite well for the club to run in line with UEFA’s new Financial Fair Play rules which are now having a huge impact on the way soccer teams are managed across Europe. Failure to follow these regulations will see bans put on any offending teams and disqualification from European competitions.
As for the debt the club is in, apparently the only debt they have is in the form of a $195 million interest-free loan from owner Mike Ashley. If all those number are starting to make your head spin, let’s put it in layman’s terms: Newcastle are pretty sound financially and with crowds of over 50,000 turning up each week and spending plenty of money on merchandise, that trend won’t stop anytime soon.
Good news for the Geordies.