DONALD ON £10M SAFC ‘BAD NEWS’

Stewart Donald remains hopeful it won’t be necessary for Sunderland to take out a short-term loan to deal with £10m to £15m worth of “additional bad news”.

Donald bought the club from Ellis Short for £40million, the deal structured in a way that only a small fee was paid up front with the rest in instalments.

It allowed Donald to deal with a raft of legacy transfer payments – Sunderland owe £20m-plus in August – and a huge wage bill in excess of the League One average.

However, since the deal was completed, Donald revealed unexpected potential liabilities of between £10m to £15m had emerged, as previously reported.

The liabilities are partially due to legal disputes over former players, with the club possibly facing further financial punishment over Ricky Alvarez.

The Black Cats signed Alvarez on loan from Inter Mi- lan in 2015, but were last year ordered to pay more than £9m for a player they never owned.

Donald hopes to come to an agreement with Ellis Short regarding some of the liabilities, but is exploring back-up options, though he says needing a loan is only “5% to 10% likely”.

Speaking on the Roker Rapport Podcast, Donald said: “We don’t need any external finance, but there are a few things that have come out that have been a bit of a surprise, so we might keep that as a back-up in case they turn out in a negative manner.

“I was always willing to cover the short-term cash hole. This (the loan) is for things that fall out of the deal with Ellis.

“There’s Alvarez and four or five other things of a similar value.

“You budget for contingencies on some of those, but the financial picture may end up looking a little bit worse than what we hoped.

“We went through as much of the detail as we could and that we were given, but there’s always in a deal of this size some things that are going to come out.

“You budget for some things to come out but there might be a few heftier ones.

“As long as you can deal with those properly there will be no need for external finance.

“I would say at the moment there’s probably – potentially – £10m to 15m worth of additional bad news.

“Or things that were there but I would argue that Stewart Donald and Sunderland Football Club shouldn’t pay.

“I don’t think that loan is anything that is to worry about, is it likely? I would say 5 to 10% likely.”

Donald added he was reluctant to ask minority shareholder Juan Sartori to help cover the unexpected liabilities.

“The financial picture mayen dup lookinga little bit worse” STEWARTDONALD