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An Overview of Newcastle United Football Club
Introduction
Newcastle United is famed for many things. It is known for its industrial heritage, the warmth of its people, its nightlife, its culture, its favorite sons and daughters of sport, its Great North Run, and screen and music. “It is stated in the Newcatle United website that since 1892, the football club has brought a community together (NUFC).” “According to Spartacus Educational, Newcastle United has 6 FA Cups won 4 premier league titles making the club among the most successful in England since its foundation (Spartacus Educational)”. Besides, they have spent remarkable numbers of seasons and their longstanding rivalry with Sunderland has been one of the fiercest local derbies in English football. While Newcastle United is one of the most popular football clubs in the world, a look into its history, fans, championships, achievement, and recent takeover provides a deeper understanding of its growth and progress.
History
Newcastle United was founded in 1892, after two older Tyneside football clubs, the Newcastle West End and Newcastle Eastend decided to merge. As a way of signifying the fusion, the newly created club was named Newcastle United. A short period after the club was formed, they became well known for their attractive and quick football brand which paid a dividend during their early years. “According to the Spartacus Educational webasite, in 1894, the Newcastle football club was admitted to the football league and Frank Watt was elected as the club’s secretary in 1895 (Spartacus Educational).” In 1897, John Peddie signed for Newcastle United and he became the top scorer in his first full season with 16 league goals. This helped the club with its first division promotion. “In their article Goad, Dixon and Gibbons state that players would play the match at St. James Park which is the oldest football ground in England (Goad, Dixon and Gibbons 488).” Since then, Newcastle has made tremendous growth to become one of the most successful football clubs in England.
Fans
Newcastle United has a wide base of fans from different parts of the world. In last season’s championship, the club drew averagely more than 45, 000 attendances for weekend games, regardless it is 2nd tier competition against the likes of Bristol City, Burton Albion, Wigan. “Following the Newcastle United Club website, when the team wins, the club’ s fans are happy and when the team loses, the impact of the loss is felt across the city (NUFC)”. The support from the fans made the players fight and finally got rewarded with promotion and Championship title. Newcastle United supporters are all over the world and in different countries, Most of them have little communities where they gather to watch games on TV together. They also meet occasionally and discuss a lot of things about the team. According to Spartacus Educational Newcastle, United fans were ranked the best in European football last season. Even though the club has had a brush with Premier League relegation and failed at the first hurdle in the FA cube, it made it into the 10 clubs in Europe with the best attendees. Newcastle United has one of the biggest and respected stadiums in the U.K generating a lot of funds due to the huge and passionate fan base.
Previously, I was not a Newcastle United club fan but as I continued to watch football more regularly, I realized how passionate I was about Newcastle United. Also, I am now a fan of the club because the club has put tremendous work to remain in the English Premier League. Even if the club has been battling from relegation to promotion and relegation again, the club has always fought to achieve the best. It is phenomenal what the club has achieved over the years and that’s why I am a loyal fan now.
Achievements and Failures
Newcastle has had major successes and failures since its inception as a football club. The beginning of the 1900s proved that Newcastle was destined for greatness. “According to Goad, Dixon and Gibbons, Newcastle United was composed of a team full of international and English talented players and as a result, dominated the first division after winning levels in 1908, 1907, and 1905 (Goad, Dixon and Gibbons 480)”. However, in this period of success, Newcastle also experienced the lowest point in history (Spartacus Educational). In 1908, the club had a 9-1 drubbing to Sunderland. Nonetheless, the first World War cut short their promising run after they claimed their first FA Cup Trophy by defeating Barnsley. After the War, Newcastle returned with a style and won another FA CUP trophy in 1924.
The club also won other FA CUP trophies in 1932, and three cups between 1951 and 1955. “Spartacus Educational agrees that Newcastle made a tremendous growth between 1954 and 1955 after beating several teams (Spartacus Educational)”. Newcastle also had a good FA Cup run in the 1954-55 season, beating Plymouth Argyle (1-0), Brentford (3-2), Nottingham Forest (2-1), Hudders field Town (2-0), York City (2-0) to reach the final against Manchester City (Spartacus Educational). After appointing Kevin Keegan as the manager in the early 1990s, the football club turned a new page (Spartacus Educational). The change of management yielded productive results as Newcastle stormed back to the top. In 1996 and 1997 big names such as Alan Shearer and David Ginola were signed into the team helping the club finish as runners-up after Manchester United. Before returning to relative obscurity during the century, Newcastle also lost the FA Cup finals in 1999 and 1998.
During the first 10 years of EPL, Newcastle became one of the biggest clubs of the time finishing in the Top 5 in EPL with other great football clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool. “According to the Football History Organiozation’s website, the club also had great players like Alan Shearer, David Ginola, Nolberto Solano, Gary Speed, Laurent Robert, Shay Given, and several popular coaches such as Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Sir Bobby Robson, and Rafa Benitez (Football History Organization).” Newcastle on several occasions got into Champions League and UEFA Cup, passing the group elimination stages.
Newcastle’s Takeover
The 2021 takeover of the Newcastle United FC by a group comprising of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), Reuben Brothers, and PCP Capital Partners, started in April 2020 and successfully ended in October 2021. After paying Mike Ashley 300 million euros, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) became the new owners of Newcastle United. “According to BBC website, the club takeover of 300 million euros was universally accepted by the club’s supporters (Kelsey)”. Being one of the largest investment groups in the world, The PIF is worth over 400 billion euros and they currently control 80% of Newcastle. With the remaining 20%, 10% goes to RB Sports & Media owned by Reuben’s brothers, and the remaining 10% goes to PCP Capital Partners owned by Amanda Staveley. Since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has control over all companies in the country including PIF, Newcastle United is now the richest team in the globe with 380 billion euros more riches.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Newcastle is one of the most popular and successful clubs in the English League. The football club has made tremendous growth in terms of football championships, winning the FA Cup trophies, and recruiting great players. Nonetheless, Newcastle is known for its fun base who has significantly helped the club achieve greater heights. The club has also had many achievements and some failures since its inception. Both have helped the club grow and learn new strategies for winning. Recently the Newcastle was taken over by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) making it the richest team in the world. “As Vince Lombardi stated, “Football is like life. It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority (Vince Lombardi).” Thus, Newcastle works smartly and improves their exposure all over the world, and makes sure there is dedication, hard work, and self-denial among the players for them to rise to football glory.
Works Cited
Football History Organization. “Newcastle United FC History and Facts.” Football History Org, FootballHistory.org, 2021, www.footballhistory.org/club/newcastle.html.
Goad, Paul, Kevin Dixon, and Tom Gibbons. “Walker Dan–Newcastle fan. One perspective of the changes in elite English football during the 1990s.” Soccer & Society, vol. 21, no. 4, 2020, pp. 448-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2020.1751469
Kelsey, Rick. “Newcastle United Takeover: What Is PIF, the Main Owner of the Club?” BBC News, 10 Oct. 2021, www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-58842557.
Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC). “About Newcastle United.” Newcastle United Football Club, nufc.co.uk, 2021, www.nufc.co.uk/club/about-newcastle-united.
Spartacus Educational. “History of Newcastle United.” Spartacus Educational, 2021, spartacus-educational.com/Fnewcastle.htm.
Vince Lombardi. “Famous Quotes by Vince Lombardi.” Vincelombadi.Com, 2021, www.vincelombardi.com/quotes.html.