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Finances require promotion for Sunderland

Defeat by a late goal at Fleetwood last night denied Sunderland the possibility of automatic promotion and now they have to enter the lottery of the play offs.

Sunderland's back-to-back relegations came at a cost of £19.91m in pre-tax losses for the 2017-18 campaign, up from a figure of £10.3m. Turnover dropped from to £63.7m from £123.5m last season. Their drop into the second tier reduced Sunderland's media income by 49% from £95.6m to £48.9m, while sponsorship also tumbled from under £10m to £1.9m. This decrease was offset a drop in salaries from £73.5m to £41.5m.

Nick Barnes, Sunderland commentator for BBC Newcastle said: 'Turnover inevitably dropped on relegation to the Championship. Total wages came down - ostensibly that's progress, but as we know they carried a number of players on high wages, despite taking pay-cuts, with relegation the wages to turnover went up to 73.5% from 66.8%. The figures are stark here - they will be starker next year with the considerable drop in income in League One.'

Leading football finance expert Kieran Maguire has said that promotion is 'essential' for Sunderland. Failing to get out of League One before parachute payments dry up 'does not bear thinking about': The challenge for Sunderland

Although results this weekend will determine the final ordering of the play off places and who is in sixth place, the semi-finals will see Sunderland either face Portsmouth or in form South-East London side Charlton Athletic.

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