This page highlights the money paid to the directors of the club. This needs to be separated from the dividends any of the individuals may have had. The figures are the total amounts the club have had to spend, so sometimes it is down as salary, other times as bonus, other times as pension contributions.
There are some stand-out sections that need an explanation.
The first is the payments made in 1996. During the period from 1992, when they bought the club, through to 1995 the directors of the club made a lot of the fact that they did not pay themselves anything. In 1996 as they prepared to become a PLC they decided to pay themselves a very large salary for the year. So John Hall was paid £836,000, Douglas Hall £793,000, and Freddie Fletcher and Freddie Shepherd were each paid £750,000.
The next point of note is the way that the salaries leapt in 2000. This came form the departure of Freddie Fletcher who was given a £532,000 pay off for losing his job, an amount roughly equivalent to two years salary.
After that the salary is basically split between Freddie Shepherd and Douglas Hall. They each took roughly £500,000 per year from 2002 onwards. Shepherd's role was as executive chairman of the club, and Douglas Hall's role was as Director of Newcastle United Football Club (International) Limited. It was never detailed in the club accounts exactly what Hall's role entailed. The accounts for the subsidiary company were always reported in Gibraltar where the main office for this part of the business was based. This means it is not possibel to see hwo much money was earned or spent by this part of the business.
The huge leap in pay in 2007 was a direct consequence of the contracts the main directors had with Newcastle United. Both Shepherd and Hall were entitled to two years salary if the club was bought out. The Douglas Hall severance figure was included in the 2007 accounts, at just under £1.2m. The figure for Shepherd has been included, at £1.2m, even though it will not actually be reported until the 2008 results come out.
Since 1996 the total amount by directors was £5.9m by Shepherd, £5.4m by Douglas Hall, £2.2m by Fletcher, and £860,000 by Sir John Hall.
Interestingly from 2001 to 2004 the other minor directors of the club were only being paid a maximum of £110,000 between them. The recipients were mainly Douglas Hall's sister Alison, and Freddie Shepherd's brother Bruce. In 2007 the amount paid to these people included an amount equivalent to a year's pay due to them having to resign their positions.
The graph below shows the amounts taken out by the three main men, John and Douglas Hall, and Freddie Shepherd. Collectively Newcastle United have paid these three men over £12.1m over the last 12 years.
The last graph shows the amount of money the club has paid out to (all) shareholders and to the directors.
