Kieran Maguire: Newcastle United to thwart rivals after behind-the-scenes financial news
Newcastle United can bypass their rivals’ attempts to slow their rise by paying higher wages to non-playing staff without violating Financial Fair Play.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the latest from behind the scenes at St James’ Park.
Newcastle’s non-playing staff were recently handed a pay rise for the first time in several years, per The Times last Saturday (28 May).
Only player and manager wages count towards Uefa’s new FFP quota, which will be phased in from the end of June.
That is in contrast to the current profit and sustainability regulations, which consider all salary costs when making their final calculation.
The Premier League are expected to mirror Uefa’s system in due course, just as they did with the previous FFP rules.
Maguire argues that, while transfer spending will be shackled by FFP, the Magpies can use the new wage loophole to spend freely on behind-the-scenes talent.
“It makes sense for a club like Newcastle, who now have significantly increased resources at its disposal,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“This counterbalances the ambitions of the Premier League elite to try to curtail their commercial revenues and so on.
“The idea behind that is that if you dampen down their income, it dampens down what they can spend on players under financial fair play.”
Newcastle announced the appointment of Dan Ashworth as director football on Monday (31 May).
The former Brighton chief is one of the most respected operators in the country.
In other news, pundit can’t believe “crazy” update on Newcastle United bid to sign Dominic Calvert-Lewin.