Newcastle could land ‘£100m’ windfall after new twist – Keith Wyness
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness has revealed Newcastle United could make an extra £100million from commercial deals following the changes to the associated party transaction (APT) rules.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the 66-year-old – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – insisted the north-east giants’ ownership group have plenty of sponsorship opportunities they can tap into.
Manchester City took legal action against the Premier League regarding the APT rules at an arbitration hearing in June, with two aspects of the regulations later deemed unlawful when the panel published its findings.
Top-flight clubs then approved key changes to the rules at a meeting in London on 22 November.
APT rules were put in place by the governing body to prevent clubs from inflating sponsorship deals with owner-linked companies to boost revenue.
Newcastle have struggled to comply with the Premier League’s financial rules since their Saudi-backed takeover in 2021, with Eddie Howe’s side forced to sell Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh in the latest summer window.
The Tyneside club posted a revenue of £250.3million in their latest accounts for 2022-23, while their commercial revenue sat at £42.9million across the same period.
Newcastle could dramatically increase commercial revenue figures
But Wyness insisted Newcastle could now improve those figures dramatically following the APT rule changes.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “The deals are not in any way fraudulent and I think they can show greater value.
“But it does mean segmenting the globe in terms of their sponsor base.
“Man United have done it successfully for many years.
“If you go through the Muslim world, there are different countries there where Newcastle can do deals with telecoms and financial services.
“PIF have got investments in Disney and all sorts of different companies like Microsoft.
“There are deals to be done.
“I think in terms of scale, they should be looking at an extra £50-100million that could be capitalised on if they work hard on the commercial department this year.”
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