The 'Profit' That Was Really a Rescue

In the 2024-25 season covered by these accounts, Newcastle Falcons finished bottom of the Premiership with just 13 points from 18 games, their third successive last-place finish. No side was relegated that year, since the league operated on a ring-fenced basis without promotion or relegation, but financial concerns around the club were public and pressing throughout the campaign.

The headline number looks, at first glance, like good news: a pre-tax profit of around £3.5m, the only genuine profit posted by any club in this dataset. It is not what it seems. Turnover fell from roughly £8.5m to around £7m, and the underlying operating loss actually widened over the year. The paper profit was created almost entirely by a write-off of close to £7.5m owed to former long-time owner Semore Kurdi, an accounting adjustment rather than a trading turnaround.

Staff costs of around £7m and net assets of roughly minus £22m round out a picture of a club that was, on the pitch and off it, in genuine survival mode. Kurdi had put the club up for sale the previous autumn, warning that Newcastle needed more than "a couple of million quid" to compete.

Turnover vs staff costs, FY2024-25