Uefa’s annual report into football finances provides another reminder of the problems Sunderland have largely left behind under Stewart Donald.
The annual Club Licensing Benchmarking report looks at the financial health of football across the continent. The latest report focuses on 2017, the year the Black Cats were relegated from the Premier League.
It looks at Europe’s 710 top-division clubs, who earned a record €20.11bn between them during the financial year, almost half of it to just 30 clubs.
As a Premier League side, Sunderland were in the first-class carriage of the gravy train, yet still had the 13th highest debt in Europe. Manchester United and Liverpool were the only English clubs to have borrowed more than their £180m net debt at that stage. It was a worrying 1.3 times their revenue and 0.9 times their assets.
Newcastle United’s borrowing was only £100,000 behind.
The entire financial position at the Stadium of Light has changed completely since.
Relegation to League One has drastically altered the revenue streams the club operates on, but fortunately the club has been able to change accordingly.
Net debt in Europe for 2017, according to Uefa’s annual Club Licensing Benchmarking report
Chairman Ellis Short sold the club to Stewart Donald in May 2018, wiping out their existing debt to do so. Donald has had to take on expensive liabilities, such as contracts for the likes of Bryan Oviedo and Lee Cattermole which are a legacy of their top-flight days (albeit both took 40 per cent pay cuts in 2017), and court cases such as the one over the disastrous signing of Ricardo Alvarez, who the Black Cats were obliged to sign permanently at the end of his season-long loan from Inter Milan in 2015, but tried not to, citing his fitness.
That was just the peak in an awful period of bad transfer dealings which saw Short invest heavily in the team – until pulling up the drawbridge for his last two years – but put his faith in poor appointments who made a series of expensively poor decisions.
In order to gain Football League approval for his takeover, Donald had to make a series of promises about his stewardship of the club, which have a bearing on how it is run now.
Big earners such as Jack Rodwell, club record £13.6m signing Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji were released, Lamine Kone left on loan and Wahbi Khazri permanently, but others remain. In their place 13 players have joined on wages and transfer fees more in keeping with their surroundings.
Against that backdrop, the team has done well to put itself in contention for automatic promotion, a point behind second-placed Luton Town with a game in hand. Record-breaking attendances have exceeded expectations, strengthening their hand for the January transfer window. If they can secure Championship football for next season, they will be in a far better position than when they played in the division last season.
Sunderland fan reaction podcast – how to get involved
Calling Sunderland fans!
We’re launching a new post-match podcast where we want to hear the views of supporters after every Sunderland match.
Basically the idea will be to send an audio clip recorded in WhatsApp over to our sports desk after every game sharing your views on the game. All of the audio clips will be stitched together to make one reaction pod which will run a little like a radio phone in programme only not live.
You don’t need to have been at the game. You might just have a general point to make, for example a rant about the club having two many draws lately. Or you might want to praise a certain individual.
If you are interested in taking part, we ask that you either email me (Craig Johns) at [email protected] or you send a WhatsApp message to the number 07747205580 expressing your interest.
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