I haven’t felt such joy about my beloved Toon in years!
Ex-owner Sir John Hall on club’s new era
SIR John hall was walking through Chinatown in the shadow of St James’ Park recently when he experienced a wave of emotions not felt since the days of his newcastle United ownership.
‘I was going to the landmark restaurant before the match and was right among the crowd — I have not felt so much joy, happiness and hope in many years,’ the 89-year-old tells Sportsmail.
‘They were all stopping me and wanting to talk about the players, manager and owners. That excitement, it brought back a lot of memories.’
It was in 1992 that hall, having rescued the club from the brink of liquidation as founder of the fan-led Magpie Group, appointed manager Kevin Keegan and they were saved from relegation to the old Third Division.
Prior to the 2-1 victory at home to leicester this month, a giant flag was unfurled commemorating the 30-year anniversary of David Kelly’s goal in a 1-0 win over Portsmouth. Without that strike, supporters maintain they never would have ridden the midnineties rollercoaster of Keegan’s Entertainers. hall agrees and takes it further still.
‘That was a golden moment, but without everything — what we did in saving the club and building a stadium and a team everyone fell in love with — newcastle United would not be what it is today.
‘I was in hong Kong when I got a call to say, “The club is going bust”. The words are seared in my memory. That call cost me £860,000! We were a bunch of Geordies who changed the complete structure of a football club and gave it ambition, we just weren’t big enough to carry it on into this era.
‘The new owners must build on the platform we created. There are many similarities between then and now, though we didn’t have as much money as the Saudis.’
There is also an irony for hall, a self-made millionaire from ashington who sold his shares to Mike ashley in 2007. For while he welcomes the possibilities brought by amanda Staveley and Saudi arabia’s Public Investment Fund, it was the influx of foreign money that forced him to quit football in the first place.
‘I was running a property business, my family business. When Roman abramovich came in at Chelsea I said, “I cannot compete. I’m not putting my business at risk, borrowing to buy a player for £20million”. For him, it was loose cash. So, I decided to get out.
‘Now look at Chelsea… we were always told abramovich was here for reasons other than football.’
And here is the paradox hall faces. The fan in him savours the ambition of newcastle’s owners. But on the prospect of football’s independent regulator, the businessman returns to the table.
‘It’s time for the powers-that-be to sit down and say, “how do we control football?”. When billionpound TV deals came in, football started to appeal to a different type of investor — people who know money. They’re not interested in the sport. It’s another means to make another billion.
‘Had the European Super league happened, it would have destroyed the game completely for the ordinary fan. Football should be about every club having a dream.
‘When people say, “newcastle is the richest club in the world”, I shudder. There is more to life than money — it is how we use it.
‘If you’re not going to ban (foreign and state-funded ownership), you have to put restrictions on it. Too much money is leaving the game. how can we use that in a better way?
‘For me, the Premier league and Government have a responsibility to put a taxation on transfer fees and put money back into sport. Sadly, I cannot see any system stopping it at the moment. It is the greed of the clubs trying to break away from the Premier league that horrifies me. Stuff them, I say.’
CLIMB back up the bank leading down to hall’s Gateshead home, and from the main road into newcastle you can see St James’ and the stand once bearing his name. he accepts the days of British entrepreneurs buying their boyhood club and competing at the top of the English game, like he did, are gone. It was during that journey, in 1993, that a picture was taken on the steps of the Milburn Stand. I show it to hall. he stands behind a group of 100 academy players — me included — on the night he declared he wanted a ‘team of 11 Geordies’.
So, did he ever achieve what he intended for his football club?
‘No. I ran out of time. I had been fixed on newcastle since I was a boy. I used to stand on the roof terrace and shout, “Sack the board!”.
‘By the time I was chairman, I had a greater vision of the north East. What I learned, owning a football club, is that you are responsible for people’s lives. The tens of thousands of fans when alan Shearer signed… incredible.
‘So, I always thought, “how can we use football to regenerate the area?”. Sky needed content to fill their channels. I wanted to bring all sports under one roof, a newcastle sporting club — rugby, basketball, ice hockey. But I was before my time, it took a lot longer for the money to come in via TV.
‘But that was my dream, to sports-wash the area, to give it a new image, to get away from unemployment and poor housing. I hope the new owners can take that on.’
Hall has been a guest of Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi at St James’ and has reminded them of the ‘responsibility’ he talks about.
‘I have spoken to them, and, while talking is easy, I think they have a genuine desire to take this club to where it should be,’ he says. ‘I also believe they bought the club cheap at £300m. If Chelsea are worth £3billion there is a huge gap between the current and potential value of newcastle. They will only accelerate that value by winning.’
Will that come in hall’s lifetime, a first English title since 1927, six years before he was born?
‘I would like to think so. at my age, you start thinking about how long you’ve got. Even if a title comes after me, I don’t mind. We set those roots for the future.’