‘Joelinton transfer profits on Newcastle exit to be wiped out by UEFA’
Newcastle star Joelinton has interest from the Saudi Pro League but UEFA will stop the Magpies from earning any PSR benefit from a deal.
The 28-year-old initially joined the Magpies as a striker in 2019, but after a career-altering position-change the Brazilian has blossomed into one of the Premier League’s finest midfielders.
Joelinton, Barcelona-target Sandro Tonali, and Arsenal-target Bruno Guimaraes have formed one of Europe’s best midfield trios, helping secure Newcastle’s return to Champions League football.
But with his fine form has come admiring eyes, and according to talkSPORT’s chief football correspondent Alex Crook, there is interest from PIF (Private Investment Fund) owned clubs in Saudi Arabia in the Brazil international, although the Magpies don’t want to let him go.
However, football finance expert Stefan Borson has warned that should Newcastle choose to sell, a UEFA rule would cause issues for the Premier League club.
UEFA rule would wipe out Newcastle’s profits from Joelinton sale
In response to the post from Crook, Borson replied stating that: “[The deal] Would need a fair market value approval from the Premier League and all profits would be wiped out for UEFA FFP purposes because he has a near-nil book value now.”
Book value is based on amortisation rules. If a player is bought for £50million on a five-year contract, the club that signed that player can amortise the deal as £10m a year on their accounts, in order to spread the costs over a longer period.
In Joelinton’s case, he was signed for £40m [Sky Sports] on a six-year deal in 2019, meaning his transfer fee will have been amortised fully by this point, and his book value for Newcastle’s accounts would be near zero.
A user then posed the question to Borson as to why club’s should be punished on a sale of a nil-book-value player when they are going to be the profitable.
The finance expert responded: “UEFA only rule to discourage related party transfers because they can’t be [expletive] assessing the value for FFP.”
Given that Newcastle are owned by the Saudi PIF, any sale of Joelinton to Al-Hilal, Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr, or Al-Ittihad would see UEFA intervene and wipe out any profits from the deal.
With many transfers now motivated by clubs wanting to remain compliant with financial fair play (FFP) or profit and sustainability rules (PSR), the European governing body have added this rule due to the difficulty in assessing the value of transfers between clubs owned by the same owners.
This issue reared its head when Allan Saint-Maximin left Newcastle to join Al-Ahli in 2023, as “rival Premier League clubs are concerned that Saint-Maximin’s transfer fee, which has not been disclosed, could be inflated in order to help Newcastle comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.” [BBC Sport]
Newcastle unlikely to sell Joelinton ahead of Champions League
Football Insider Verdict
Whilst Newcastle will be in line to garner a healthy profit from selling Joelinton, provided the suitor is not a PIF-owned club, the Magpies should not even entertain the idea.
The Brazilian midfielder missed the final five games of the season, including the last day of the season loss to Everton that almost saw the club miss out on Champions League football.
Without the 28-year-old, Eddie Howe was forced to change his entire tactical set-up, and Newcastle suffered as a consequence.
The temptation in modern-day football is to earn as much as you can from player sales, but the value Joelinton brings on the pitch is worth more than the Magpies could receive in a transfer fee.
With Champions League football on the horizon, the focus should be on bringing in players to rotate with the Brazilian.