Newcastle United are close to announcing the renewal of a major sponsor as part of a new blueprint for turbo-charging commercial revenue under ambitious new chief executive David Hopkinson.

Hopkinson has replaced Darren Eales in the St James’ Park boardroom and new management will see a new focus on beefing up revenue streams, which Newcastle believe is the only way to navigate the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and Uefa’s even stricter squad cost control rules without resorting to player sales every summer.

The club’s unofficial target has been to double revenue streams every two years and Hopkinson, the former head of global partnerships at Real Madrid, is expected to urge colleagues to step on the accelerator in the coming months as the Magpies look to capitalise on Champions League qualification.

Newcastle posted record commercial revenue of more than £80m in their most recent accounts. They have looked to ape Manchester United’s industry-leading commercial strategy of securing premium partnerships with some success, with the likes of Polish firm InPost becoming the club’s “official parcel collection and delivery service” in a multimillion-pound deal.

Red Bull and Guinness have also been added to their portfolio but the club have a long way to go – Manchester United’s latest commercial revenue is an eye-watering £333.3m.

Under PSR, that gives them considerably more headroom to invest in players and part of Hopkinson’s remit is to try and close that gap, with majority owners the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) reasserting their ambitions for the club during a lengthy recruitment process for the chief executive’s position.

Newcastle believe that there are a number of reasons why they can hope to get closer to the revenue levels of the big six in the next few years.

As well as an expanded commercial team and a far more sophisticated retail operation, success on the field should help.

The i Paper understands that the club’s profile in the last 12 months – with the Carabao Cup success and Champions League qualification – has piqued the interest of “genuine global brands” who were out of reach in the first few years after the Saudi takeover.

There is also hope that a training ground and training kit sponsor, which the club have held talks with firms over but are holding out for “premium” prices, will finally be secured while Manchester City’s agreement with the Premier League over associated party transactions (APT) could potentially allow Newcastle to negotiate more favourable terms with Saudi sponsors linked to PIF.

While PIF sources have played down talk of a super-sized sponsorship deals – insiders told The i Paper that the firm has no interest in challenging financial fair play rules – there is scope to argue that any deals signed with Saudi-aligned companies might be worth more because of the profile they afford the firm.

“I think it makes life easier for Newcastle,” Professor Rob Wilson, a football finance expert and programme director at the University Campus of Football Business, told The i Paper.

“The APT agreement with Manchester City gives Newcastle an opportunity to grow those sponsorships and commercial deals a little bit more than they might have done previously.

“They can do that because as a Champions League club you’d expect them to have more exposure and if Sela decide there’s a bonus payment of £20m this year, I don’t think that sits outside the realms of possibility.

“Fair market assessment still applies but I think off the back of the agreement there’s scope to be more liberal in those.”

It comes as it emerged that Newcastle’s ownership group – comprising of PIF and the Reuben Brothers – have injected another £111.5m into the club to take their investment over £700m. £5m of that has been set aside for the women’s team.

Filings with Companies House on Friday confirmed the new capital injection, which is the largest single investment by the ownership group since the £305m takeover was brokered in 2021.

It is understood the money will be used for running costs and to fund infrastructure development – further improvements to the existing training ground are on the way – and the club are moving closer to announcing plans for a new site.