Club to announce financial good news all round
Posted on March 6th, 2012 | 44 Comments |
According to an article in The Telegraph, Newcastle’s results for the 2010/2011 financial year – which are due out later this week – are set to show that the club is in good shape. The Telegraph goes on to suggest that they will show the club has made a profit for the first time since Mike Ashley bought it in 2007.
Apparently said results will not include player trading, although we should still have change from the £35m windfall we received from Liverpool for the sale of Andy Carroll.
In a separate article, The Telegraph goes on to say that the results will also confirm that we’ve reached an agreement with the tax office over ongoing disputes we’ve had with them.
The main dispute with HMRC has been about players’ ‘image rights’. This was a kind of tax avoidance scheme where payments to players were labelled as ‘image rights’ rather than ‘salaries’, which meant that such payments could be made to companies rather than individuals and thusly attract 26% corporation tax rather than 50% income tax. This is something that at lot of Premier League clubs have been up to and most have reached agreements with the tax office about it. Allegedly the settlement agreed by Newcastle has already been accounted for by a contingent liability put aside in the previous year’s accounts.
Apparently Ashley’s holding company – MASH Holdings (which owns St James’ Holdings, which in turn owns Newcastle United) – reported at 10% increase in turnover to £1.68b and a profit of £79.4m.
This is good news with the new UEFA Financial Fair Play rules coming into effect, although I still have my doubts about this whole financial fair play stuff and suspect that the stinking rich clubs – such as Manchester City and Chelsea – will find some way around it. I could be wrong of course.
Anyway, the finances are apparently in good enough shape for the club to announce a 9-year season ticket price freeze starting next season. This is kind of a second chance offer for those who missed out on last year’s 10-year price freeze. Derek Llambias said:
“Last year’s offer proved extremely popular and there was a fantastic response from the supporters – and no wonder, because we felt it was a great deal.
“Since then, the team has made great progress under Alan Pardew and we have made exciting signings such as our new number nine, Papiss Cisse. Those who signed up to the ten year deal really have got great value for money.
“That’s why we’re keen to do something similar again, so that anybody who missed out can secure their seat and rest assured that the price of their season ticket in 2020/21 is not a penny more than it will be in 2012/13.
“It’s important that fans are assured they can opt out without any penalty if they wish to do so. There is no catch.
“We’ve had a handful of sell-outs already this year and we hope this scheme will lead to even more next season. That helps to create a great atmosphere at our stadium and we hope supporters will want to be part of it for the next nine years – and beyond.”
I think it’s good news that the club is looking in decent financial shape. I’ve had my criticisms of Ashley for sure but I’ve always thought that his financial policies for the club have been pretty good.
Now there’s a surprise!