Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been discussing Sunderland’s financial accounts.
In May 2018, Stewart Donald completed his £40m takeover of the club from the Black Cats’ former owner Ellis Short (per BBC).
Just two years on from Donald’s takeover of the club, Sunderland are still in League One, Donald has stepped down as chairman and he is looking to sell the club (per BBC).
In the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast, Maguire discussed the complexities of Sunderland’s financial accounts and explained how Donald and business partner Charlie Methven earn money from the Black Cats.
He said: “As you can imagine, I was busy all over Companies House as a result of this; trying to piece it together.
“SJD Leisure Holdings, which is this parent company, that said, ‘Oh, we’ve had a good year running Sunderland, we’ve made an £11m profit’, and they seem very pleased with themselves.
“But then you go into the small print and although they made an £11m profit, that includes £38m of parachute payments from the Premier League for a club which is playing its games in League One.
“Then there’s reference to £320,000 paid to another company involved with Methven and Donald for what they refer to as ‘management charges’. So, they’re saying, ‘We’re not taking a penny in wages out of Sunderland’, which is true, but they’re getting another company to invoice for their services for £320k.
“So yeah, it is all over the place. It’s messy. Football’s a simple game, pass the ball, keep the ball, that’s all you do with it. You think that football finance should be simple as well, but sadly, with clubs and their club owners constantly doing things like this, it leaves you feeling very uncomfortable.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what the finance expert had to say, he clearly feels that the way Sunderland is being run financially makes him feel “uncomfortable”.
Are Sunderland's problems bigger than whoever is owning the club?
Yes, there's something else wrong
No, we just need the right owners
With Donald looking to sell the club to a “suitable new owner“, hopefully that happens sooner rather than later and the club can start building towards an eventual return to the Premier League.