NEWCASTLE have hit back at suggestions in a television documentary that owner Mike Ashley's Sports Direct business is taking money out of the club.
The Dispatches programme The Secrets of Sports Direct, which was broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday evening, looked at the retail relationship between the sportswear business and the club.
However, officials at St James' Park have accused the programme makers of misleading supporters, who are currently waging a campaign against Ashley which on Saturday spread to Sport Direct when protesters gathered outside its Northumberland Street branch in the city.
In a statement, the club said: "For the purpose of clarity, we can reconfirm that 100 per cent of the income from goods bought in the club's official stores and on its website are received by the club and not Sports Direct, as the Dispatches programme claimed.
"The only money paid by the club to Sports Direct is for the stock (at cost price), plus a handling fee. This represents far better value than the costs the club historically incurred in relation to purchasing, storage and distribution.
"In fact, the change to our retail operating structure introduced in February 2013, which saw us partner with Sports Direct, increased the profit margin by over 50 per cent. This benefits the club hugely.
"In simple terms, the club receives more money as a result of this relationship."
Fans have stayed away in their thousands from Newcastle's last two home games after campaigners called for a boycott in response to the news that the club banked more than £4million in addition to recording profits of £18.7million during the last financial year amid anger over a perceived lack of investment in the playing staff.
The Magpies have lost their last seven league games - the first time they have done so in the Barclays Premier League - and are in danger of being sucked into the thick of a relegation battle as a result.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article