Questions need asking
By The Sunday Sun, Oct 27, 2002
Transparency is what we are told to expect of football clubs floated on the stock market.
Their stereotypical image as private fiefdoms run by autocratic, sheepskin- coated chairmen hardly sits easily with the open accountability demanded by City investors.
Accordingly, Newcastle United Plc's books for the year ending on July 31 make all necessary references to the club's financial undertakings over the previous 12 months. But certain of those references may not have quite been explanatory enough to satisfy the curiosity of some of United's shareholders.
In a week when Juventus have been beaten at St James's Park, several journalists have added to the feelgood factor by reporting favourably on United's newly-published results off the pitch.
However, some people with a stake in the Magpies may have been, shall we say, intrigued by the odd detail in Newcastle's latest set of accounts.
If so, those shareholders would be forgiven for raising certain queries at the club's AGM on November 18.
Firstly, what does Newcastle United Football Club (International) Limited - the newly-formed, club-owned Gibraltar-based company of which major shareholder Douglas Hall is an executive director - do?
As Hall received remuneration of £524,257 in the last financial year for that directorship, it is not an unfair question.
Secondly, what was the nature of the £2.3 million "purchases from subsidiary undertakings of Cameron Hall Developments (the Hall-owned company)" made by the club in the same period?
Thirdly, to which of their own subsidiary companies did United guarantee £7 MILLION-worth of bank loans in the 12 months to July, and why?
What I do know is that the aforementioned AGM will take place at Merchant Taylor's Hall in London's Threadneedle Street, with a 9.30am kick-off.
All of which begs another pertinent question: why is it not being held in Newcastle?