Newcastle United ended a 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy by lifting the EFL Cup in 2025 under Eddie Howe, but as the fifth anniversary of the club's Saudi-led takeover approaches in October, the ambition to become 'the best' faces an uphill battle against tightening financial rules.
Three years, seven months and 21 days after Manchester City's 2008 takeover, they won their first Premier League title — a speed that alarmed top-flight executives when Newcastle's buyout by a consortium including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) was completed in 2021. 'There was quite a lot of fear in the other clubs because they thought it was going to be another Manchester City,' a source said.
“Newcastle United won the EFL Cup in 2025 but financial rules and revenue gaps threaten the 2030 ambition.”
But the regulatory landscape has shifted. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire noted: 'The challenge for Newcastle United is in the era of PSR (profit and sustainability rules) and now SCR (squad-cost ratio), it is very much geared towards preserving the status quo.' At the time of the takeover, Newcastle were in deep relegation trouble, yet former owner Amanda Staveley made clear in her opening interviews that the club aimed to win the Premier League within a decade.
Concerns elsewhere led to action. An unnamed executive contacted the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others just days after the buyout, requesting a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions — the precursor to APT rules introduced in December 2021. Those rules limited Newcastle's ability to turbocharge revenue through Saudi-linked sponsorship deals.
Newcastle's income streams have still grown significantly — from £140m in 2021 to £335.3m in 2025 — but they lag behind the Premier League's biggest earners. Though only two places below sixth-placed Chelsea in the revenue table, the Blues generated £155m more in their most recent accounts, thanks to an aggressive trading model. That gap helps explain why Chelsea could agree a club-record £117m deal with Aston Villa for forward Morgan Rogers, alongside a sizeable wage increase.
Newcastle have qualified for the Champions League in 2023 and 2025, and chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan set out to be 'number one'. But with chief executive David Hopkinson's strategy still unfolding, the club clearly has work to do on and off the field if the 'best by 2030' vision is to become reality.