‘Unfair’ - Newcastle United receive three-year takeover judgement after Man City win historic case
Simon Jordan believes comparing Newcastle United’s post-takeover achievements to Manchester City’s is “unfair” given the contrasting FFP/PSR climate.
Sheikh Mansour bulldozed into Eastlands 16 years ago and began a journey to make City the best team in world football. Huge investment helped turn a mid-table outfit - who played in the third tier just nine years earlier - into Premier League contenders.
It took four years to win the league, with superstar signings arriving one after the other before Roberto Mancini finally made the team click. But UEFA - and the Premier League - soon stopped the fun by introducing financial restrictions to limit clubs from spending.
Making football sustainable was the aim but preventing another Man City or Paris Saint-Germain was also a key reason behind the proposal. By the time Newcastle were sold to the Public Investment Fund in 2021, owners’ individual wealth became largely irrelevant.
City won a legal case against the Premier League yesterday that found Associated Party Transaction rules - introduced after Newcastle’s takeover - to be unlawful. There is now hope that this could lead to the Magpies raking in further investment from Saudi Arabian commercial deals.
Three years on from Mike Ashley’s exit, former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has insisted comparing Newcastle’s and City’s trajectories would be “unfair” due to FFP/PSR measures. He told talkSPORT: “The comparison between what Manchester City did in the four years between 2008 and 2012 and what Newcastle have done is not fair.
“First of all, Man City got sanctioned during that period of time for breaching Financial Fair Play rules and copped to a sanction. Secondly, the regulations have changed so it’s not a fair comparison.
“If Newcastle were able to do what Chelsea were able to do in 2003 and what Man City did in 2008, which is unload a shedload of cash without restrictions, Newcastle might be further up the league. I think it’s unfair. Manchester City spent hundreds of millions of pounds. I thought they might be able to overcome it because they have no big losses that (Mike) Ashley left behind.
“The reality of the rules tightening up now, I thought they’d price it into a model that was changed. The question is, have they underachieved in the period of time under this ownership model, compared to what Man City did? It’s a totally unfair comparison.”