Hull rugby league supremo Adam Pearson is heading a consortium trying to buy crisis club Sunderland. Pearson and his team have approached Ellis Short and are now one of two live bidders for the relegated Black Cats.
Prospective bids have foundered at the due diligence stage. Having been relegated from the top flight in 2017, Sunderland have the advantage of a £35m Premier League parachute payment next season but the latest financial figures, released a year ago, revealed £69m was owed to Short and £68m to Security Bank Capital, with the latter arrangement costing £8m a year in interest payments.
The austerity measures implemented by Martin Bain, the chief executive, have reduced those arrears appreciably and Short is prepared to walk away in exchange for a buyer repaying a significant portion of his personal loan in addition to shouldering the wider debt but the finances remain forbidding.
Kieran Maguire of the Price of Football has commented, 'Under Ellis Short Sunderland have generated £676 million of income and spent £516 million of this on player wages and a net £148 million on transfers. This means for every £100 of income £98.20 has gone to/on the likes of Jack Rodwell, Will Buckley, Jozy Altidore and Santiago Vergini. The club have had trading losses of over £208 million since he acquired the club, equivalent to £502,000 a week.'
Sunderland are one of only two clubs yet to publish their 2017 accounts. Maguire asks, 'I wonder how much the highest paid director has received? Club have been a very good payer in the boardroom historically.'
Sunderland have received 160 in income since the last figures were published and most of that has gone to reduce the debt, martim bain has worked tirelessly to reduce the debt.
ReplyDeleteEllis shorts decision to pull the plug and pay off the debt has meant the team has suffered terribly a strange decision for a billionaire .