MIKE ASHLEY’S LETTER TO JEREMY WRIGHT MP

I am writing to you in relation to the above petition, which was presented to Parliament on July 24, 2018 by Chi Onwurah, Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central.

A copy of the petition can be found in Hansard via the link contained in the footnote below.

The petition presents a wholly inaccurate assessment of the situation at Newcastle United.

I was therefore disappointed that, to the best of my knowledge, Ms Onwurah made no attempt, in advance of presenting the petition, to contact or engage with me, or anybody at Newcastle United.

As owner of Newcastle United, I have provided the club with interest-free loans, the outstanding balance of which as at today’s date is £144million, whilst I also cleared all of its third-party debts, which stood at £76m in 2006/07 and incurred finance costs of £6.5m that existed when I purchased the club.

This enabled Newcastle United to establish an affordable ticketpricing policy for fans.

This includes a number of season-ticket prize-freeze schemes, which allows over 20,000 supporters to secure their ticket at a significantly-reduced rate every season.

We operate numerous community-engagement programmes through our Foundation, who met with your predecessor Matt Hancock MP earlier this summer to discuss our work.

I enclose below a link to the Foundation’s most-recent annual report for your information.

Having attended Foundation Events on many occasions over the past few years, Ms Onwurah should be well placed to have a detailed understanding of the extensive good work our Foundation does within the community.

Our training facilities have improved significantly during my tenure.

They are fit for purpose and very clearly do not have a negative impact on performance, given we secured a place within the top 10 of the Premier League last season.

Furthermore, my continued financial support, the huge contribution of the world-class manager we retained, together with the fantastic efforts of our players and staff, enabled the club to swiftly recover from relegation in 2017.

This contrasts starkly with the experiences of clubs such as Aston Villa and Sunderland, and, less recently, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest.

In my opinion, the Parliamentary petition is an irresponsible and misleading attempt by a small number of MPs to create a media circus by portraying me as a pantomime villain.

Following publication of the petition, an unprecedented volume of unacceptable abuse was directed towards staff at Sports Direct and its associated companies, via social media, email and telephone.

This included digital material of an obscene nature, incitement to commit criminal damage, and language that was clearly intended to intimidate and harass staff.

We are in the process of bringing examples of this behaviour to the attention of police.

I would therefore be grateful if you could take into account all of the above factors whilst considering any response that the Government may wish to make to the petition.

I would be happy to provide written answers to any questions that you may have, not only about football ownership, but also about the manner in which the petition was presented and its subsequent repercussions.