Newcastle are set to have their sponsorship deal with Sela ratified by the Premier League.
The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) are ahead of schedule when it comes to their plans for Newcastle United.
Ever since the controversial acquisition of the club by the sovereign wealth fund of the Gulf nation there has been intense focus on the Magpies and how much they could spend to make themselves a force to be reckoned with and disrupt the rather cosy confines of the established ‘big six’.
PIF have faced scrutiny over their Newcastle ownership due to claims of sportswashing and the deal being done in order to cleanse the image of Saudi and take the focus away from the human rights abuses that continue to take place in the country.
The enormous wealth behind PIF, which is worth some $650bn (£510bn) affords Newcastle the ability to invest, albeit within the guidelines set out by UEFA’s revised financial fair play regulations and the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules. They have spent big on the likes of Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes last season, and Sandro Tonali from AC Milan this season, but qualification for the Champions League for this campaign came as a surprise.
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Liverpool finished in fifth last season, unable to close the gap on Newcastle and Manchester United sufficiently to avoid a first campaign away from European football’s elite knockout club competition since 2016/17. They will miss out a revenue stream that has in recent seasons been worth in excess of £100m to the Reds. For Newcastle it allows them access to those kinds of funds that will drive up revenues and allow them to further consolidate their position as a bona-fide challenger to Liverpool and the established title contenders.
Commercial operations have been of particular focus. The Magpies have raised the value of deals across the board, from replacing sleeve sponsors Kayak with Saudi e-commerce firm Noon and then, most recently, swapping betting firm FUN88 with another Saudi company, marketing and events firm Sela.
The value of the Sela deal has been pegged at £25m, an increase of 257 per cent on the previous deal of £7m per year that the Magpies had in place. It is a deal that, given the simpatico relationship between the PIF and Saudi-based companies, has been the first to truly be the litmus test for the Premier League’s ‘fair market value’ rule, introduced to try and curb ways for clubs to inflate commercial deals to generate revenues unfairly.