We Are Newcastle United, the new Amazon Prime documentary series, may be the first of a new sporting genre: the Financial Fair Play drama. It is more about the boardroom than the dressing room; less is revealed about the guarded Eddie Howe than in the deluxe settings of Alnwick Castle, where his employers are more concerned by the bottom line than the forward line.
Take for example the gripping search for a new shirt sponsor.
Newcastle United approached 1,193 companies. They had an initial meeting with 65 of them. They were whittled down to nine, then four, then two, before they chose Sela, a Saudi Arabian sports events and hospitality company. Which can seem a little convenient to some. Newcastle’s income has been inflated this summer and a commercial deal has come from the homeland of their owners, while Allan Saint-Maximin has been sold to the Saudi Pro-League.
As Newcastle’s various powerbrokers discuss the Sela contract, co-owner Amanda Staveley asks if they can defend it, if it is fair market value. The answer comes in the affirmative. Some outsiders might be sceptical.
There is, admittedly, little suspense in discovering that Newcastle does, after all, find a shirt sponsor but its importance is underlined. The underlying issue is how to create enough revenue within the rules. It is not as simple as just pumping money in.
“We are not going to overspend, otherwise we will be in big trouble on Fair Play,” says Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Newcastle chairman and governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi.
Amanda Staveley reflects on the Carabao Cup final defeat by referencing Manchester United’s vast commercial income. At another point, she frets: “If we can only spend a certain amount we have to assume we are not going to get Champions League next season.”
It is no spoiler to say they do and no surprise that their sights are set higher again.
“We want to be a Real Madrid, a Barcelona. To get ourselves to that point we need to spend money,” says Mehrdad Ghodoussi, Staveley’s husband and another co-owner.
Al-Rumayyan adds: “We want to compete not only for the third or fourth position, we want to be number one.”
There is no lack of ambition: Al-Rumayyan wants the worth of the Saudi Public Investment Fund to reach $2 trillion and Newcastle’s value to increase tenfold.
If it suggests he is no mere benefactor, there is a sense Newcastle feel themselves the bogeymen for the rest of the Premier League. Their version of events is broadcast, their adversaries – apart from a couple of press-conference clips of Jürgen Klopp – are usually off-screen. But there is pushback to their takeover.
“I think there was a fear we would have an unfair advantage,” says Staveley. “They said it was the Saudi state, which is absolute rubbish. It is not Saudi Arabia, it is the Public Investment Fund.”
There is the sense from her that the goalposts were moved to hamstring Newcastle, with a short-lived ban on sponsorship deals from companies linked to their owners. “I was shocked we could buy a club, pay a full price and then rules just changed,” she says. “I think that’s what pissed me off.”
The other villain of the dramais Mike Ashley, whose years of neglect left Newcastle United a long way behind their rivals.
Peter Silverstone, the Chief Commercial Officer, compares the size of their commercial team with his former club Arsenal’s.
“We don’t have time to make mistakes,” he notes, while suggesting he was made an offer he could not refuse: “When you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t ask which seat, you just get on board.”
Silverstone argues that the Sela deal will help Newcastle become “the most followed, most supported club in Saudi Arabia”. If Bruno Guimaraes is the likeable Sean Longstaff’s favourite player – and has no objection when a classroom of school children nominate his midfield sidekick, not him – he is also Silverstone’s.
Bruno Guimaraes will help grow Newcastle’s support in Saudi Arabia— (AFP via Getty Images)
“From a commercial perspective, he ticks every box,” he says. “He will attract more fans to Newcastle.”
A recurring theme is that Newcastle has to look after pounds and pennies; not because of the Saudi PIF’s bank balance, but due to FFP. The January negotiations for Anthony Gordon are prolonged, Everton’s initial demands for £60 million are deemed excessive. “They are bluffing,” says the negotiator in Staveley after a bid is rejected. They eventually get Gordon with an effusive tribute from Staveley: “Anthony is going to be one of the best players in the league and Eddie just adores him.”
All such shows are an attempt to humanise. Staveley comes across as caring and involved, saying she fell in love with Newcastle United, going into the dressing room after the Carabao Cup semi-final win to address the team: “You’re going to get the Champions bloody League this year, I am telling you.” She gives Gordon her and Ghodoussi’s phone numbers and tells the newcomer to call if he ever needs anything. She has a habit of calling everyone - from Callum Wilson to an agent she phones - as “my angel”; for Staveley, the Angel of the North is not a statue by the A1 as much as everyone she encounters.
The Amazon Prime series focuses heavily on how Amanda Staveley and her husband, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, run Newcastle United— (PA)
Al-Rumayyan invites the players to his house during their World Cup training camp in Saudi Arabia. Earlier, asked about the appointment of Howe, who he learns was relegated with Bournemouth, he replies dryly: “That’s even better, he knows what not to do.”
Howe, though, proves an inspired choice by decision-makers who have shown a sure touch so far. Staveley claims that, at one stage in 2021, there was a 96 per cent chance United would have gone down. “That would be a disaster,” she says.
Disaster was averted, success fast-tracked. Newcastle start this season in the Champions League, not the Championship. Money has played a part in the transformation and money is a constant concern. They have the flagship signing Sandro Tonali this summer, and this week’s acquisition, Tino Livramento, but the only other buy is Harvey Barnes, whose arrival from Leicester City was in effect paid for by the sale of Saint-Maximin.
They are Newcastle United; not as they were in 2021 or perhaps as they will be in 2025, but a club with Saudi money in an ongoing battle with the balance sheet.
The original documentary series WE ARE NEWCASTLE UNITED, which will launch on Prime Video with the first episode on Friday 11th August, followed by new episodes every Friday through to September 1st.
