Bitter battle for the sole control of St James’ Park
“PURE, vicious nastiness.” That is how one prominent member of The Magpie Group describes the so-called ‘share wars’ which ensued at Newcastle United in the late 1980s.
The backstory to Sir John Hall’s eventual takeover of the club – seizing control from Gordon McKeag, who infamously referred to his Newcastle shares as his “family silver” – is one of bitter feuds and a four-year battle for control with The Magpie Group at its very centre. In the third part of a four-part series on The Magpie Group and how Sir John came to own Newcastle United, Malcolm Dix, Peter Ratcliffe, John Waugh, Alan Rooney, Sir John Hall and the Chronicle’s John Gibson describe the cloak-and-dagger nature of the share war... McKeag’s “family silver”, bugs and The Chronicle’s involvement
From 1988 onwards, Sir John Hall set about acquiring shares in Newcastle despite originally making it clear he did not want to buy the club - he eventually came to the conclusion someone needed sole control. McKeag and the other board members were unwilling to reform or relinquish their share. As a result, a twoyear ‘share war’ ensued.
John Waugh (JW): “The share wars brought plenty of drama. There was pure, vicious nastiness from the board’s side – and we used what you might call ‘underhand tactics’ at times as well.
John Gibson (JG): “I was used as a gobetween throughout the whole thing, meeting up with certain directors for unofficial talks. It was like a spy novel – at one meeting at a private house I was taken into the kitchen at a critical point during negotiations and the water tap was turned full on so if I was wired voices could not be clearly heard!”
Malcolm Dix (MD): “There was always a fear we were being bugged.”
Alan Rooney (AR): “I remember at a meeting at our HQ in the MetroCentre once, an ashtray fell on to the floor and broke and there was a bug in it. It was not the board’s though – it was from people who were on our side! That is how security conscious we were!” Peter Ratcliffe (PR): “That ‘family silver’ comment from McKeag riled us all, particularly John Hall. Newcastle is a football club for the fans – it was not McKeag’s to keep hold of at any cost and run into the ground. Sir John Hall (SJH): “I had tried to encourage supporters to buy shares in the club in 1988 but they did not trust the board – and I know why. “We ended up with a fractured board who disagreed with one another, so I turned around and said: ‘This is nonsense. Someone has to have control here or this is going nowhere.’ So we decided to do the takeover of the club and that was when Malcolm and the rest of the Magpie Group – who operated out of the old dining room at Wynyard Hall – went all over the country buying shares and making it. I said to them: ‘There is the money, go out and buy the shares.’ They travelled everywhere buying the shares.”
Hunting for shares – all over the country
The problem The Magpie Group faced was of the original 2,000 shares some lay with board members while others had passed down to disinterested supporters – or even to people who did not know they held shares.
Fraser and Fraser – a professional team of genealogists who feature on the TV programme Heir Hunters – were called in to trace the shares.
As a result, members of The Magpie Group – primarily Ratcliffe and Trevor Scott – journeyed around the country to places as far afield as King’s Lynn, Soho, Edinburgh and even the Isle of Wight to buy shares with Sir John supplying the cheques.
JW: “It was a bloody hard slog, 24/7 for years.”
AR: “Keeping John on side was key – if he had lost his bottle then the whole thing would have collapsed – and Gibbo was essential to that.”
JW: “I cannot tell you how many times I had to ring Gibbo and say: ‘I am going to pick you up, we have to get to Wynyard.’ John was ready to go on at least four or five occasions but I knew if I got Gibbo in there then John would think: ‘Oh Jesus, I am going to have a nasty piece written in the paper tomorrow if I don’t stick at it.’ It worked – he never pulled out, did he?”
MD: “Gibbo might not admit it but he was very much part of the Magpie Group even though he was an independent journalist.”
JG: “We always say Kevin Keegan was always on the verge of resigning, well John was always on the verge of throwing it in during those early stages.”
PR: “John did stick at it and his driver took me around the country to do the deals. We were getting them one by one.”
JW: “The very first shares we bought on the first day were for about £200. Gibbo got an article on itand that was day one of buying the shares.”
AR: “Fraser and Fraser once gave me a shareholder’s name and they gave me his telephone number; just three digits. I said: ‘No, get me the real number.’ They then said: ‘Ring the number!’ I rang that number every day for six months and then one day it answered – I nearly s*** myself! He was a retired person in the wilds of Wales which is why the number only had three digits. This guy was a descendant of the family who were in control when the club in the 1920s and had inherited another four shareholdings from other family members he did not know about. I did not tell him but I asked him if he was willing to sell. He said: ‘That depends on how much.’ So I told him and excitedly said: ‘Can you meet me in Manchester Airport today, I will be there with my solicitor?’ I headed straight across. The guy was there, his face when I gave him the cheque – he was absolutely astounded. Then I said: ‘I have a little surprise.’ Then I got out the next cheque. The smile on his face must have stayed on for years.”
MD: “John Waugh got the single-largest shareholder George Dixon too. He literally camped at their house for two days.”
JW: “George was a supporter, he really was. When we bought him out, two days later we had a midweek match at St James’ and George stood in the Gallowgate. It was p***ing down with rain but he went and stood in the rain, even though he had been a director. He was furious with McKeag for how he acted during that time. He had told me he had to offer his shares to McKeag, knowing full well we were going to get them because McKeag could not afford them. McKeag was so arrogant and nasty with George – who was a mild-mannered man – and he told me: ‘I almost punched him.”
MD: “It was a coup d’etat that one. It took us over the line that one but I was the Westwoods. I had a big battle with Lord Westwood and he was the one who was always having a go at me in the media as some sort of trumped-up fella or something. So it gave me immense personal satisfaction that through his sonGavin, after a few gin and tonics at his house in Gosforth, he gave me his 25 shares, plus he had the power to give me his father’s and his brother’s.” ■In Monday’s final instalment of our series we will take a look at the legacy of The Magpie Group and the onset of The Entertainers.