Cats home in on SoL friendly

Sunderland fans will be able to watch their club’s rebuild at close quarters this summer, with the vast majority of pre-season games set to take place in the UK,

And there will be a prestige pre-season friendly at the Stadium of Light for the first time in nine years.

The departure of David Moyes and the arrival of a new manager may lead to some tweaks of the schedule, but the former Black Cats boss confirmed plans were well in place before his final game against Chelsea last weekend.

Sunderland will travel abroad for a training camp in Austria, but they will not play any games while there.

They will play most of their games in the UK, with a handful of games in England and north of the border in Scotland.

The club will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Stadium of Light opening and are set to mark it with a highprofile fixture.

The ground has not been able to host a preseason friendly for a number of years due to staging concerts in the off season. That will not happen this summer with and paves the way for the first open-to-fans friendly at the ground since the visit of Ajax in 2008.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory for the visitors that day as El Hadji Diouf and Steed Malbranque appeared on home turf for the first time.