Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been discussing William Storey’s reported interest in purchasing Sunderland from Stewart Donald.
Last week, it emerged that soft drinks tycoon Storey had lodged a bid to purchase the Black Cats as he announced it via his own Twitter account (via Chronicle Live).
Storey has then gone on to claim that he will invest £50m in the club if he takes over from Donald which would be a ‘minimum commitment’ (per The Sun).
So, in the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire discussed the latest with Sunderland and aired his view on the prospective owner.
He said: “This is a gentleman called William Storey and he posted up on LinkedIn. He says, ‘I’ve signed a nondisclosure agreement to buy Sunderland Football Club.’ Isn’t that a bit of a paradox? So, immediately my antennae were twitching away.
“So, he said he’s made a formal offer. He says he’s got some blue-chip backers. As well as his claim that he’s interested in buying the club, he stuck up a picture of a Sunderland shirt with his company sponsoring it, except the smarter people in Sunderland said, ‘Hold on, that shirt’s about three years out of date.’
“Then you do a bit more digging around about Mr Storey, and it turns out that he’s the owner of an energy drink called Rich Energy, which apparently he and an Austrian scientist created in 2009 with a mysterious formula.
“He has been involved in sports before, but none of it has ended particularly well. So, when Force India went into administration, he tried to buy a Formula One team but the administrators knocked him back.
“So, it’s an ownership deal that has huge question marks over it. I think in the short term, will he offer enough? Will it be accepted? Will he satisfy the owners’ and directors’ test and then medium to long term, even if he does, where can he take the club? Because I’ve not seen his energy drink anywhere.”
TIF Thoughts…
Seemingly, the finance expert seems unsure of Storey and believes that there are a number of unanswered questions surrounding the energy drink tycoon.
Do you want William Storey to take over Sunderland?
No, he seems dodgy
Yes, he seems alright
With it only having been just over two years since Donald took over from Ellis Short (per BBC), it seems that caution is required so the Black Cats are not in the same position in another two years’ time.