What does Dougie do?

Last updated : 03 November 2002 By Martyn Elliott

The rogues' gallery
With the revelation last week that Dougie was paid £524,257 by the club, without appearing to have any input in the running of the running of the club, the paper ran an investigation into exactly what he does.

It’s fair to say that the piece is hardly ground breaking investigative journalism, but it does help to bring the question of Hall’s involvement in the club to the fore in the run up to the AGM on November 18.

The paper sent a reporter to Gibraltar to investigate the activities of Newcastle Football Club (International) Ltd, a subsidiary of the club of which Hall is a director.

All they found was an empty office, which had plaques with the names of Newcastle Football Club (International) Ltd and Cameron Hall Developments Ltd – the company owned by Hall’s father Sir John, the man who saved us from bankruptcy.

So the only thing we can conclude from this is that the club has established an overseas company in order to try and legally avoid as many taxes as possible and to make trading abroad easier. This is fairly normal practice for most big businesses and should not be thought of as anything too untoward.

But one question does remain – what does Dougie do for his money? Although we can probably all guess what he spends it on!

Since the Toongate scandal five years ago Freddy Shepherd has gone some way towards redeeming himself – just look at the stadium, the amount of money made available to Sir Bobby in the last two years and the decision to keep on a manager who many would deem to be too old.

But Dougie seems to still be living off his family name and doing very little for his huge salary and bonus. If you are attending the AGM, make sure the right questions are asked.

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