Keegan wins £2m damages from Newcastle

Former Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan has been awarded £2m in damages against his old club by an independent arbitration panel set up by the Premier League. The sum falls considerably short of the £24.5m he had demanded, made up of £8m he said he would have earned over the remaining three years of his contract plus £16.5m in damages for having his reputation and future career prospects besmirched.
 
Newcastle, which is owned by sportswear magnate Mike Ashley and is now in the Championship following relegation from the Premier League on the final day of last season, parted company with the former England and Fulham manager in September 2008. They claimed that Keegan wasn't entitled to any settlement because he had resigned from the club. Keegan's counter-claim of constructive dismissal was accepted by the Premier League panel.
 
"The decision to resign was one of the most difficult decisions that I have ever had to take in my life," an emotional Keegan said today. "I believe that anybody who knows me and my attachment to Newcastle United and the North East in general will understand how difficult this must have been. I very much hope that the decision of the tribunal now confirms why I felt that I had no option but to resign from the position as manager of the club that I love."
 
The club is drawing a line under the matter, making no comment on the verdict, and will have to pay their former employee in full within the next seven days or face further sanction.

Keegan's relationship with the club ultimately broke down when former Millwall gaffer Dennis Wise was appointed as Executive Director (Football) over the manager's head. The pair frequently clashed as Wise - who has also left the club - interfered in transfer dealings that Keegan felt should have been his domain.
 
The panel was told that Newcastle signed a player called Ignacio Gonzalez solely because Wise wanted "to do a 'favour' to two influential South American agents who would look favourably on the club in the future", despite Keegan's repeated protestations that he didn't rate the player at all. ·