Clubs warned to expect drop in TV revenue due to Covid crisis Former starlet opens up on depression fight
NEWCASTLE United can expect a drop in TV revenue when the next cycle is negotiated later this year – heaping more pressure on Mike Ashley’s attempts to sell the club.
BT Sport chief Simon Green has predicted a “correction” on the Premier League’s TV deal, which is worth £5billion over three years.
The next broadcast auction will take place later in the year – having been pushed back from an early 2021 date as the Premier League hopes for more certainty on the return of fans – and Ashley will be desperate for the sale of the club to be concluded before then.
“There’s certainly going to be a rights correction and it may be seen and interpreted by many as rights deflation,” Green said at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit this week.
“It would be a welcome change to the market. Over the last 20 or 30 years with some particular examples of where broadcasters pay an awful lot of money for rights. I don’t think that’s going to happen so much going forward now, so I do see a realignment.”
Premier League chief executive
Richard Masters said this week he doesn’t believe the rights have plateaued but they face some difficult decisions on how to market packages – and will wait until later in the year in the hope that fans are back and the economy has bounced back to put them out to market.
But some analysts think the deal could be cut by more than 20% this time around, which would seriously impact Ashley’s ability to command £340 million for Newcastle – which has been his price since he put the club on the market four years ago.
Ashley knows any buyers would baulk at that price if the Premier League’s TV deal reduces as it places a major strain on the club’s income. Last year they made more than half of their revenue from broadcast revenues and prize money, which is related to the huge deal the Premier League has been able to negotiate.
It also throws into sharp focus the enthusiasm Ashley has for the stalled PIF/PCP Capital Partners deal – which he has Nick de Marco and a team of lawyers working to resolve.
PIF brokered a deal at just under Ashley’s price – although he tried to re-negotiate at higher terms when the exclusivity ran out last year – and are understood to be willing to come back to the table at the same fee if a route to passing the owners’ and directors’ test is cleared.
If that deal can’t be resurrected, Ashley will be faced with a major decision on price.
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IT was the sort of night that any young Geordie striker longs to experience.
With the iconic number nine on the back of his shirt and the Sunderland defence in his sights, Jonathyn Quinn plundered a hat-trick to help Newcastle United Under-18s to a 4-0 win in a Youth Cup tie.
After finishing off his treble, he wheeled away at the Gallowgate End, one arm aloft in a celebration that his boyhood hero and fellow Wallsend Boys Club product Alan Shearer had carried out many times before.
However, Quinn’s hat-trick against the Black Cats would be the zenith of his time with his boyhood club and an unsuccessful loan spell with Blyth Spartans failed to spark any movement towards the senior ranks.
He was released by the Magpies in May 2015, less than 16 months after his remarkable night at Gallowgate.
The sting of rejection and the end of his dream did not hit home until years later following brief spells with Northern League clubs Ashington and Bedlington Terriers and Northern Alliance side Alnwick Town.
With his time in the professional game now in the past, it took a dose of reality delivered by Quinn’s partner for the realisation that he was suffering with mental health problems really hit home.
He said: “When you grow up in Newcastle, scoring against Sunderland is the pinnacle of what you can do.
“Yes, it was only an under-18 game, but it still meant everything to me, and it always will.
“My grandad wasn’t well at the time, but he was at the game and he got to see me do it before he passed away a few weeks later.
“It just didn’t work out after that. After leaving Newcastle, I was fine until a year later, and maybe it was seeing players from below my age level playing in the first team.
“I started thinking about it again, I realised what I had lost, and I was sat on the couch, I just couldn’t move.
“I told my girlfriend that all I wanted to do was play football, but she said ‘well, you can’t do that’”.
“She was brutally honest, she has always been that way, but it was the kick up the backside that I needed.
“I’d never had any issues with mental health in my life, but it made me realise I was suffering with depression, it just hit me like a punch in the face.”
The 25-year-old admitted that he wanted somewhere to turn when his problems began but was unable to find the correct outlet for those released by professional clubs.
Quinn believes that something has to change as the pressures of life in the game continues to increase with every passing year.
“I Googled it when depression hit and there is no aftercare for players after they have been released, not from the FA, the PFA, anyone,” he said.
“That must change, it’s just not good enough. I look at the young lad from Manchester City (Jeremy Wisten) that took his own life, I read that and thought that was the route I was on if I didn’t have the right person with me. “I know how dark things can get.” He went on: “The only person that was the right person was my partner because she gets me, and she knew something was wrong.
“She wanted me to start that conversation and once I did that, once I spoke about it, a weight lifted off my shoulders.
“She’s supported me every step of the way, supported us financially and helped me with job applications.
“She has done all of that, which can’t have been easy because I have sometimes been a nightmare to live with.”
Of the side that started the win over Sunderland, only Quinn and Ryan Mckinnon are out of the professional game. Despite seeing the likes of Adam Armstrong flourish in their post-united careers, Quinn insisted that he has no regrets over his time with his boyhood favourites.
“A lot of the players I played with have not waited around for a chance at Newcastle and they have gone away to try their luck elsewhere.
“Adam Armstrong is doing some great things at Blackburn Rovers and I think Newcastle will regret the decision to let him go.
“Lubo (Satka) has played for his country and in the Europa League, and Rolando Aarons is now away and will do well at Huddersfield Town.
“I don’t regret anything that went on at Newcastle, I had the best six years of my life.
“My biggest downfall was I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else. I went to Barnsley on trial, but my motivation wasn’t there – I only ever wanted to play for Newcastle.”
Quinn is now ready to focus on the future with his life as a dad and a partner his priority.
He will resume playing football, for Alnmouth United, once the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided having rediscovered his love for the game. In his own words, he is “in a good place”.
He said: “I made the mistake of chasing the dream for six months to a year, but I just needed to let it go, I needed my partner to say that.
“I am playing with my mates and I found my love of the game again.”
There is no aftercare for players after they have been released. That must change, it’s just not good
enough Jonathyn Quinn (above)