United's directors given a grilling over pay
The players may be the toast of Tyneside but yesterday Newcastle United directors received a less than rapturous reception from shareholders over their handling of the club.
Directors including chairman Freddie Shepherd were grilled over boardroom salaries, dividend pay-outs and the club's controversial Gibraltar-based operation at a stormy annual general meeting in the heart of London's financial district.
United bosses were yesterday accused of having "no consideration" for private shareholders and trying to deter them from attending the meeting by holding it in London.
A major criticism was the £524,257 paid to Douglas Hall for his role as a non-executive and as executive director of Newcastle United Football Club (International) Ltd, an overseas marketing operation based in Gibraltar.
His family company, Cameron Hall Developments, also received £58,000 in rent for the operation's office.
The previous year, Mr Hall was paid £110,000 as a non-executive director.
Brian Peart, a retired builder from County Durham, who owns 30,000 shares in the club, said: "I think it's ridiculous that a non-executive is paid £500,000 to run an office in Gibraltar. "I believe he should be paid the same as any other non-executive that gets £20,000 to £30,000." He also said the total dividend payment of £4.5m was "far too high" for a club which recorded an overall pre-tax loss of £3.1m in the 2002 financial year.
Mr Peart, 65, said: "It's a massive amount of money and you can't keep paying that out of losses." Mr Shepherd robustly defended the club's record and Mr Hall, saying: "If it wasn't for Douglas Hall this business would not be in the position it is today."
Mr Shepherd said Mr Hall had been responsible for tying up a strategic alliance with Chinese football team, Dalian Shide, through which United hope to exploit the potentially lucrative Far East market.
He added that suggestions the club was paying £400,000 for an empty office in Gibraltar owned by Cameron Hall Developments were "complete rubbish."
Mr Shepherd told the meeting: "I would be surprised if he (Mr Hall) was in the office because he would not be doing his job if he was sat on his backside in that office."
The chairman added that the £4.5m dividend was in line with the plc's stated policy.
Finance director Ken Slater said that even taking into account the dividend, the club still had £14m worth of reserves.
Other shareholders claimed the club had not been "shareholder-friendly" to hold the AGM in London at 9.30am on a Monday.
Mr Shepherd said the decision to come to London was made to help encourage City investors to the meeting, adding it would be held in Newcastle next year. Mr Shepherd was re-elected as chairman, final dividends of 2.27p per share were approved and five other resolutions covering issues including board appointments and auditor appointments were passed.