According to The Times, The FA could ban clubs from setting up lucrative friendlies at the end of the season after the news that Newcastle would be playing Tottenham in May.
The fixture is scheduled to be played in Australia just three days after the final game of the season. This raised questions, especially with a major tournament to come this summer, but we all knew that the motivation for both sides was the financial benefit and commercial growth on offer.
Of course, this has only become an issue when Newcastle have done it. Other clubs having previously traveled to America and Asia for similar end-of-season games, yet nothing was done about it.
This is becoming a theme for Newcastle United. First it was constant attempts prevent the Saudi takeover, then we saw a shift in FFP rules to limit our spending, an insistence on ‘fair market value’ when agreeing to commercial deals and a block on related-party transactions that stopped us from selling certain players to Saudi Arabia – like Chelsea did – or bringing in an SPL player on loan.
There’s been that many rule changes to limit our growth over the past two years, it can’t be a coincidence. What next? It’s getting beyond a joke now.
They have brought in rules that ensure clubs can only spend a percentage of their revenue. Then, when clubs try to increase their revenue, they put a block on several means of doing so and also get to decide which sponsorship deals are passed. Sounds like one massive effort to control the growth of a certain club aiming to disrupt the ‘big six.’
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: The FA is to look at changing the rules to ban clubs from staging lucrative friendlies beyond the end of the season.
Read the details ⬇️https://t.co/vu6gpYgqAZ
— Times Sport (@TimesSport) April 23, 2024
