Amanda Staveley negotiating a pay-off at Newcastle United – Sounds a bit unlikely | OneFootball

Amanda Staveley has been making headlines this week.

With the widely reported news that she and her husband are going to part company with Newcastle United.

A massive reaction from the NUFC fans to this news.

The pretty much universal response to Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi’s departure is one of sadness that they will no longer be involved, as well as gratitude for the part they played in ridding us of Mike Ashley and what we have enjoyed in the 33 months since then.

Everybody wondering what will happen to the 5.7% Newcastle United minority shareholding that Amanda Staveley has, whether Saudi Arabia PIF or the Reuben family will buy them, or indeed the possibility of a new shareholder.

However, the shareholding hasn’t been the only ongoing Newcastle United business relationship Amanda Staveley has had with the club, she has also done paid work for the club since the takeover, in an advisory role.

I have seen local media claim this Friday morning that Amanda Staveley is now ‘negotiating a pay-off’ with the football club, however, this all sounds a bit unlikely to me.

After the takeover happened on 7 October 2021, Amanda Staveley (along with her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi) was given a management contract, paid contractor(s) to help run the club post-takeover. With Mike Ashley having stripped the club down to the bone, especially when it came to the non-football side, Lee Charnley was the only token senior official employee. More of a caretaker in reality, as Mike Ashley had unofficial inner circle Sports Direct individuals such as Justin Barnes as his main men overseeing the football club from afar.

When thankfully Charnley was kicked out along with Steve Bruce after the takeover, the rebuild began. Though unlike a normal major Premier League club, Newcastle United had no senior management team, or board of directors. Lee Charnley was the only director, as well as the only official senior executive.

A team heading for what appeared certain relegation and a club overall heading full steam ahead Titanic-like for a huge iceberg, the need for high-level people to save the day was huge.

Eddie Howe of course arrived in November 2021, a massive step forward, with Amanda Staveley having led that superb appointment hunt, with the help of others behind the scenes of the post-takeover period.

Amanda Staveley was paid £937,500 for her contracted work in that first relegation-fighting season, the accounts for the 2021/22 season showing Newcastle United had paid Cantervale for work carried and billed for between October 2021 and June 2022. Amanda Staveley the only director at Cantervale.

Dan Ashworth arrived as Sporting Director in June 2022, then Darren Eales started in August 2022 as the club’s new Chief Executive, having done an excellent job at Atlanta United.

Newcastle United, with the help of Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, helped to put together the beginnings of a high-level senior management team to run the club, a world away from the joke that had been NUFC under Mike Ashley.

Ironically, these senior appointments that Amanda Staveley was playing a sizeable role in making them happen, also meant that her role was now diminishing, as well as her pay.

In August 2022, The Times revealed that Amanda Staveley would still be working for the club but that her management contract was now replaced by a new ‘advisory’ role as a contractor. The appointment in particular of a CEO in Darren Eales meant less expected of Amanda Staveley in terms of a hands-on role. Amanda Staveley reportedly became the key point of contact for the CEO as he took on the biggest role in running the club day to day.

When we eventually got to see the 2022/23 Newcastle United accounts, for the year period ending 30 June 2023, the reduced role was reflected in her pay. Amanda Staveley, via her company Cantervale, was paid £312,000. This amount is more than £600,000 less than that first 2021/22 season when so much responsibility was put on Amanda Staveley.

We won’t see the 2023/24 accounts, for the year to 30 June 2024, for some time. However, you would imagine that this last season will see her contracted work earning her a similar amount to that £312,000 figure for 2022/23, rather than any similarity to the £937,500 received for the work done in 2021/22.

My understanding is that it would be very unlikely that any kind of a ‘pay-off’ for Amanda Staveley will need to be negotiated because I can’t imagine any chance of her advisory contract being anything other than a season-by-season arrangement, that gets renewed year-by-year. That ties in with the timing of Amanda Staveley’s departure, in between seasons.

As to whether Newcastle United decided to award Amanda Staveley a farewell present, in recognition of the role she has played in both helping to make the takeover happen and then what has been achieved post-takeover, could be another matter. I’m sure you would struggle to find many (and) Newcastle fans who would begrudge such a farewell thank you present if it happens. Of course, the Saudi Arabia PIF and/or the Reuben family (fortune estimated at £25billion) could give Amanda Staveley an unofficial financial thank you package themselves, which doesn’t impact the club accounts at all. After all, the chances of them ending up owning Newcastle United would have surely been vastly diminished without Amanda Staveley having put herself forward to be the public face of the takeover.