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Newcastle need to unlock commercial revenue

Newcastle want to become the best-supported overseas club in Saudi Arabia. Senior club officials know that the quickest way to unlock the vast wealth of Newcastle’s owners is to grow commercial revenue, raising their financial fair play ceiling.  The Saudi-themed change shirts of the last two seasons are part of the same drive.

Premier League clubs have been wary of this strategy — though their motivation has appeared to be based more on competitive than moral reasons — implementing rules to try to stymie any sudden injection of Saudi capital.  Simply put, the big six don’t want to become a big seven.

This includes rushing through legislation on related-party transactions, preventing outsized sponsorship deals with Saudi companies, while UEFA introduced regulations ensuring every transfer would be “fair market value”, stopping PIF-owned teams in the SPL from paying Newcastle excessive transfer fees for unwanted players.

Newcastle’s new shirt sponsor Sela, a PIF-owned events company that is paying around £25million a year ($31m) for the advertising space, is closely linked with the Saudi national team and the club will receive a healthy fee for hosting last Friday's thinly attended international friendly against Costa Rica.

They are not the first Premier League club to host international friendlies, but it’s easy to imagine Brazil drove a harder bargain for the right to host international friendlies at Arsenal’s Emirates than Saudi Arabia did at St James’ Park, though the figures are not public and Newcastle wouldn’t be drawn on the finances involved when asked by The Athletic.

Newcastle fans are among the most dedicated anywhere and they suffered a lot under Ashley, so should we begrudge them a potentially better time?  Once again football gets mixed up with politics when the average fan is concerned about the success of their team.

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