Newcastle United chief executive David Hopkinson has launched a strong criticism of football’s financial regulations, arguing the current system has forced the Magpies into painful decisions despite the wealth of its Saudi-backed ownership.
Speaking to The Athletic, Hopkinson admitted Newcastle’s recent player sales were driven by financial reality after the club breached UEFA’s squad cost ratio rules and entered a compliance agreement with European football’s governing body.
“It’s not fun to be notified
you’re not in compliance, to go to Nyon and explain yourselves to a tribunal, to negotiate the terms of your fine and sign up for a remediation plan that requires you to get back into compliance,” Hopkinson said.
The Newcastle CEO reserved his strongest comments for the financial system itself.
“SCR is the most unfair salary system I’ve ever heard of,” Hopkinson said. “My experience is as a commercial expert in the sports industry. I’m used to a North American model where you have some version of a salary cap, which means everybody gets about the same amount of money to work with. The idea that the amount of money you’re able to work with is indexed to your ability to generate revenue is a unique challenge.”
Hopkinson also insisted Newcastle’s owners are not the problem.
“I want to be really clear: our owners are not taking profit out of this,” Hopkinson said. “There’s no one more frustrated by the constraints of SCR than our owners.”
Rather than complain, however, Hopkinson said Newcastle’s response must be to grow the club’s commercial strength.
“Some people look at it and complain it’s unfair. I agree. But then what?” he said. “We are in the self-help business and in order to fuel our ambition, we need to grow our revenues and grow them faster than our rivals. They’re ahead of us. We got to catch them from behind. We got to work our asses off to do it. We’re prepared to do that. We have a plan and we will deliver this mission.”
Hopkinson also explained why Newcastle sold Bruno, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali this summer, saying missing out on European football forced the club to reduce a wage bill that had been built for Champions League competition.
“Our wage bill was ready for Champions League football,” Hopkinson said. “But we’re not in the Champions League. We’re not in Europe at all this year and we needed to make adjustments to our squad in line with that reality.”
Do you agree with David Hopkinson that football’s financial rules are unfair, or do you think every club should operate under the same restrictions? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
