Newcastle send 'great' Adidas message as 'imponderable' FFP nightmare spared

Eddie Howe has declared that it is 'great to be back' with Adidas ahead of the launch of Newcastle United's new partnership with the sportswear giants.

Newcastle will play their final games in Castore kits in the coming days. First up is trip to Brentford on the last day of the Premier League campaign before Newcastle jet off to Australia to face Spurs and the A-League All Stars in post-season friendlies.

Newcastle's new home shirt then looks set to be unveiled on June 7 after the Magpies reunited with their former kit supplier. Having previously been tied into a remarkably one-sided contract with Castore from the Ashley era, the new arrangement with Adidas could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds in kit and retail sales over the next five years for Newcastle.

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"What we need as a football club is to grow our income," the Newcastle boss told reporters. "However we do that, whether that is sponsorship deals or other means, certainly deals like that help and it's great to be back with Adidas."

Not only will Newcastle's own retail operations now move in-house for the first time in more than a decade - Adidas will help take the Magpies' shirts into shops across the globe. Newcastle are also being paid seven-figure sums as part of an exclusive agreement with JD Sports to sell the kits while the associated royalties are substantial.

That is why the Court of Appeal's decision to dismiss former owner Mike Ashley's latest bid to force Newcastle to supply Sports Direct with kit is significant as the alternative would have resulted in an effective breach of the JD Sports agreement. Thomas de la Mare, the barrister representing Newcastle, previously warned the court of an 'imponderable loss' if the injunction was granted at a time when replica kit sales were an 'absolutely critical part of the revenue'.

"It all occurs in a world where football finance is more fraught than it has ever been," he added. "If you don't balance your books, you may find yourself in the Everton or Nottingham Forest scenario of points deductions or worse and you may therefore have to trim your expenditure to cater for the risks in question."