In the final part of our series focusing on the commercial side of the North-East's top three football clubs, Paul Willis looks at the Toon Army brand.

WANDER through any market in Bangkok and before long you are sure to find a trader selling replica football shirts.

The chances are, most of the shirts will belong to English Premiership clubs, and it is also highly likely that nestled between the Manchester United and Arsenal home kits, you will find the black and white of Newcastle.

The recent love affair with English football in South-East Asia and the Far East has seen top Premier League sides heading over there to cash in on the football frenzy.

Although the panache has been somewhat lacking recently, Newcastle's traditional brand of high-octane football has scored in Asia.

Despite a rather tepid couple of seasons on the pitch, Newcastle United Football Club is still one of the most marketable brands in English football.

In the UK as well, the club retains a popular support that allows it to punch above its weight.

David Pope, an analyst at broker Brewin Dolphin, said: "Newcastle is a very strong brand both here and abroad. This has been down to two factors - the team's performance on the pitch and the style of play.

"In the Far East in particular, Newcastle's cavalier way of playing, especially under Kevin Keegan, won them a lot of admirers."

The club has been quick to exploit this marketability.

In the closed season last year, it headed out for a tour of the Far East to try to tap into its Asian market.

It has also signed a long-term deal with Adidas in the hope that the global reach of the international sports company will allow the club to penetrate previously untapped markets.

In the UK, Newcastle remains one of the most popular clubs - despite an empty trophy cabinet that is the result of a series of near misses in league and cup competitions.

The London branch of the Newcastle supporters club has about 5,000 members.

Mr Pope said: "Rather like Liverpool, Newcastle have the luxury of being a very strong, and easily identifiable, regional brand.

"Anyone who has even a vague knowledge of football knows the Toon Army, so it is a good selling point for the club."

But while Newcastle remains the region's biggest and best-known football club, question marks remain over how successful the club has been in taking advantage of its number one status.

While Middlesbrough's meteoric rise to the top has been guided by the unobtrusive approach of chairman Steve Gibson, the boardroom at Newcastle has been more visible.

Between them, chairman Freddy Shepherd and executive director Douglas Hall control the majority of the shares.

Shepherd has recently consolidated his stake in Newcastle -his company bought 1.12 million shares in the club, taking his slice of the operation to 24.7 per cent.

Hall, the son of North-East businessman Sir John Hall, remains the main shareholder, with a stake of about 40 per cent.

But a series of PR disasters, starting with a 1998 tabloid expose accusing Douglas Hall and Shepherd of making insulting remarks about the supporters, players and women of Tyneside, and culminating in the untidy dismissal in August of manager Sir Bobby Robson, have left the pair struggling to regain the support of the fans.

Some blame the club's shaky performances in recent seasons on its decision to become a plc in 1997.

United joined a number of clubs, including North-East rivals Sunderland, in floating on the Stock Exchange.

But with a few notable exceptions, the floating of football teams has not been a success.

Middlesbrough points to the intransigence of a plc, which must report everything to a board of directors, compared with its flexibility as a private company.

John Fickling, vice-chairman of Sunderland, which has since de-listed, said last month that the City had fallen out of love with football.

Mr Pope disagrees on both points. He said: "There is no reason why a plc needs to be inflexible and I do not think it is a case of the City losing faith in football. The City is interested in well-run businesses and the clubs that have followed that model have remained popular."

Newcastle United plc seems to be a case in point.

The club has announced healthy results year-on-year since its 1997 launch.

Last year, profits were £8.3m and it reduced its debt by £5.7m to £37.2m.

However, according to Mr Pope, Newcastle's robust financial position is largely down to the undying loyalty of the Toon Army.

"If you look at its revenues, then it is a perfect business model. You are talking about around 40,000 season tickets sold at the start of every season. That is a guaranteed revenue that comes in - regardless of the performance of the business."

However, Mr Pope said the club had been shrewd, avoiding the boom and bust that had afflicted other Premiership rivals.

He said: "A good comparison would be Leeds United, which took on a big loan and used the money to buy new players. As soon as the transfer market collapsed at the end of the 1990s, the club found those players had devalued massively and it was left with this huge debt and nothing to show for it.

"Newcastle also borrowed heavily in the mid-1990s, but they used the cash to invest in St James' Park and increase its capacity. The result is, they are left with a long-term asset that is not going to lose value."

The Newcastle United brand is another asset. But whether it holds its value in the markets of Asia will be determined by what happens on the pitch.