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Saudis fly in for Newcastle conference

Yasir Al-Rumayyan will lead a 25-strong delegation of PIF officials flying in for Newcastle United’s board-level meetings in Northumberland this week.

The club’s chairman and governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Newcastle’s 85 per cent owners, will hear from senior figures throughout the club, including Eddie Howe, the head coach, and David Hopkinson, the CEO, during an annual ‘off-siting’ conference at Matfen Hall, the luxury country hotel 16 miles west of Newcastle, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Hopkinson has confirmed that Newcastle’s plans for their stadium — with a decision to be made on whether to expand St James’ Park or build a new ground nearby — and their training ground, with a site identified at Woolsington near Newcastle International Airport, will be on the agenda, as will his already approved plan to turn the club into one of the world’s best by 2030.

Around 25 PIF officials, according to Hopkinson, will be joined by Jamie Reuben, the minority owner, and are also expected to seek answers for Newcastle’s underperformance on the pitch this season, with the club 14th in the Premier League after losing nine of their last 12 top-flight matches.

“We’re considering what to do with our stadium, whether that’s a significant renovation or a brand-new stadium,” Hopkinson told the SportsPro London conference at the Oval cricket ground, where he was speaking on Wednesday morning.

“We need more capacity to drive that revenue. Our training ground is very good — it’s not as good as others. If we’re going to have world-class ambition, we need world-class infrastructure to support that. These are the types of conversations we’re going to have over the next couple of days.”

Although Newcastle’s figures will have grown again across the current season, 2024-25 is the most recent year when financial results are publicly available for Premier League clubs. Across that campaign, Newcastle’s turnover (£335.3m), matchday income (£51.6m) and commercial revenue (£120.2m) were dwarfed by the average of English football’s ‘Big Six’ clubs (at £638.8m, £119m and £288.2m respectively), so they have ground to make up.

Hopkinson has been bold and ultra-ambitious in his public pronouncements since arriving at Newcastle in September, yet the chief executive knew that to carry any sort of momentum he had built with his vision forwards, actions needed to follow.

With Newcastle labouring on the field, it is vital that off-the-pitch progress continues. Further fortifying the executive-level structure feels important to that and, while Hopkinson adding senior staff has been trailed for months, actually having those new positions filled means those figures can get on with their jobs. If they are as well qualified as Hopkinson suggests, then their impact upon business operations should be consequential.

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