EXCLUSIVE: Ernst & Young Resign from NUFC
No not two young players or even backroom staff, but Newcastle United's auditor has resigned effective from 20th October this year.
Companies of the size of Newcastle United Football Company Limited are required to have their accounts audited as part of filing these with Companies House. The next documents to be filed by the club will be in December before final year accounts are due next year for the tax year 16/17.
An exiting audit company is required by law to identify if there is a reason they are resigning that is linked to the running of the company, thus highlighting any issues to Companies House, and to future auditors.
You will note that in the statement filed by Companies House there is a clear statement from EY that there are no issues to raise.
We do however find it a little odd that EY have severed ties with the Company. Most businesses of the scale of Newcastle United Football Company would use one of the big finance houses like EY or PWC for such matters, and whilst these come at a cost, the actual fees are fairly insignificant in terms of the overall running cost of the club. It would be a little bizarre therefore for this parting of the ways to be for financial reasons.
Whilst this could of course be be as simple as Lee Charnley wanting someone else to do the auditing, 'a fried of a fried' perhaps, it could be something more interesting.
An auditing company is not allowed to act as auditor if there is a 'conflict of interest' with another client. This would mean, for example, that if a prospective investor in NUFC is planning on using E&Y, E&Y would need to remove any link to NUFC to allow such representation to be allowed. Another example would be where E&Y were representing someone who was buying something from NUFC such as land.
Whilst this is all pie in the sky as we actually don't know the reason behind this change, it is slightly unusual and if nothing else is worth mentioning.
With several journalist being contacted to at least ask the question of NUFC, let's wait and see if the plot thickens.