Amanda Staveley, Newcastle United’s co-owner, has been discussing multi-club ownership and the club’s summer intentions at the Bloomberg Power Players event in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at the event in Jeddah, she acknowledged to being a’very big fan’ of Man City’s multi-club strategy, which sees them collaborate with 13 other teams from France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, Australia, India, America, Brazil, Uruguay, and Bolivia.
When asked if Newcastle planned to follow suit, Staveley replied, “We very much are. Football includes multi-club teams. It’s quite beneficial to be able to have and train guys who aren’t on your roster.
“The UEFA rules are changing, so we’ll see what happens. The politics surrounding whether we might have a club have shifted considerably in the previous year.
“I am still a huge fan of the multi-club model. Many other Premier League opponents and friends have multi-club affiliations, but it must be viewed as a whole.
She then said that the club had looked into chances in Belgium, Australia, Brazil, and Asia, with a focus on acquiring elite young players for our academy system:
“We looked at Belgium and several other European markets. We looked pretty much everywhere, including Asia, Australia, and Brazil. We’ve looked at every market, and obtaining players through our academy system and multi-club model would be really beneficial in terms of allowing us to buy and having players involved earlier in our journey.”
Staveley was also asked if there would be any ‘major transfers’ this summer, and he said, “I’m not sure. You will have to come back and see how we do in the coming months. I do not know. I’m not sure what we’ll do about transfers at the moment.
She didn’t say much, but the “see how we do in the next few months” phrase seems to imply that our intentions will be determined by our Premier League finish and whether or not we qualify for Europe next season.
