Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has defended his ownership of the club in a letter to Members of Parliament.
The businessman became the owner of the Tyneside club in 2007, buying out Sir John Hall’s and Freddy Shephard’s stake in the club to take 100 per cent ownership.
However, in recent times his popularity with the Toon fans has dropped to an all-time low with supporters frustrated at the lack of transfer spending. This led to Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah delivering a petition to the House of Commons which claimed the owner was ‘exploiting’ the club.
Ashley has now written a letter responding to the petition, defending his reign at the club, with the below quotes a section of the full letter written by the Sports Direct owner.
“The petition presents a wholly inaccurate assessment of the situation at Newcastle United. I was therefore disappointed that, to the best of my knowledge, Ms Onwurah made no attempt, in advance of presenting the petition, to contact or engage with me, or anybody at Newcastle United,” Ashley wrote in the letter.
“As owner of Newcastle United, I have provided the club with interest-free loans, the outstanding balance of which as at today’s date is £144million, whilst I also cleared all of its third-party debts, which stood at £76m in 2006/07 and incurred finance costs of £6.5m that existed when I purchased the club. This enabled Newcastle United to establish an affordable ticket-pricing policy for fans. This includes a number of season-ticket prize-freeze schemes, which allows over 20,000 supporters to secure their ticket at a significantly-reduced rate every season.
“Our training facilities have improved significantly during my tenure. They are fit for purpose and very clearly do not have a negative impact on performance, given we secured a place within the top 10 of the Premier League last season.
“Furthermore, my continued financial support, the huge contribution of the world-class manager we retained, together with the fantastic efforts of our players and staff, enabled the club to swiftly recover from relegation in 2017. This contrasts starkly with the experiences of clubs such as Aston Villa and Sunderland, and, less recently, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest.”
OPINION
This is quite the response from Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley. Granted, the paying off of debts and improving the financial situation at the club was very important when he first took ownership in 2007. Now he’s done that, what is his response to the performances and funds made available on the pitch? Regardless of what Ashley says in the letter in terms of financial help and stabilising the finances, these improvements have not seen an upturn in performances and results on the pitch and that is where the fans frustration lies. The Magpies fans aren’t bothered about the health of the balance sheet or how much debt the club is in, all they care about is the club moving forward and trying to be ambitious in order to finish as high as possible. Whether that is right or wrong can be debated, but what can not be argued with is that the club’s league finishes have not improved since he took charge and that has to be classed as a failure.
