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Mike Ashley still refusing to publish Newcastle United accounts – Only Premier League club left to do so

4 years ago
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The Newcastle United accounts for last (2018/19) season were due to be filed by 31 March 2020.

Those accounts taking us up to 30 June 2019 and allowing us to see what Mike Ashley had been up to in that time.

However, news broke on 1 April 2020 that Ashley was set to break his own record, every season the Newcastle United accounts are put out late, but this time extra late, even by Ashley’s own standards.

The NUFC owner exploited a clause announced by the chancellor to help companies dealing with the impact of the virus situation.

Government announcement from the Chancellor – Wednesday 25 March 2020:

‘From today (25 March 2020), businesses will be able to apply for a 3-month extension for filing their accounts.

This joint initiative between the government and Companies House will mean businesses can prioritise managing the impact of Coronavirus.’

The Companies House records showing that Mike Ashley had pushed back the official deadline to file those 2018/19 Newcastle United accounts.

Exploiting this loophole giving him license to do it even later this year. With that change it should be now by 30 June 2020 instead of the original 31 March 2020 but from past experience you can add at least a month or two onto that where NUFC are concerned under Ashley.

Crystal Palace also exploited that same virus related loophole but now their 2018/19 accounts have gone public, leaving Mike Ashley and Newcastle United as the only Premier League club not to publish theirs so far.

It is very difficult to see any other reason for this delay in filing the Newcastle United accounts, than the fact that Mike Ashley wants to delay as long as possible, making certain things public.

This is typical of the lack of transparency at Newcastle United in these 13 years under Mike Ashley.

During this entire suspension of football due to the virus situation, the NUFC owner has treated fans with contempt. Refusing to refund money on 2019/20 tickets that can never be used and at the same time insisting taking direct debits from thousands of fans for the 2020/21 season, a season we have no idea of when fans will be allowed in, if at all. Indeed, as well as taking monthly advance payments off thousands of fans for 2020/21 season tickets, Ashley refused to stop entire advance ST payments being taken from many fans by direct direct over two months ago in March 2020.

Mike Ashley has also refused to allow the club to make any announcements whatsoever during this virus football shutdown to justify / explain to the Newcastle fans any of the actions / inactions, from furloughing staff to no refunds on tickets that can’t be used to taking advance payments for tickets that may never be able to be used.

I fully understand why many in the media are putting such a negative focus on the potential new owners of NUFC.

However, I fail to understand why the overwhelming number of journalists refuse to spotlight just how shameful Mike Ashley’s actions have been for 13 years and indeed, continue to be.

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