Answers to the key questions over FPP, Stewart Donald and Sunderland’s future
It has been another seismic week on Wearside, with concerning results on the pitch and major developments off it. So exactly where do Sunderland stand and what are the key questions unanswered at the moment? the consecutive relegations.
The funds will also be key at academy level as the club seeks to maintain its category one status. There has been a pledge for more recruitment and investment in the U18 and U23 age groups, where the club is struggling on the field this season. Methven and Academy Director Paul Reid have bemoaned the club’s vulnerability to losing talent to top Premier League academies and the modest renumeration that brings, the former telling the Echo that he wants this injection to help incentivise those players to stay.
Companies House documents have confirmed a £10 million injection into the club, with FPP investing into Madrox, the holding company owned by Donald, Methven & Juan Sartori.
They have also confirmed that this is a repayable loan from FPP to Madrox.
If it is not repaid, FPP takes control of Madrox and therefore the football club and all of its assets, including the SoL and the AoL.
Much remains unclear about the deal struck between Sunderland’s current owners and the FPP group.
The terms of the repayment are, Donald said, confidential, as is the timescale in which that repayment has to take place.
It is also not known whether there will be interest and with that in mind, even more important is exactly how the money will be repaid by Madrox.
The long-term plans and aspirations of the FPP group are yet to be publicly stated by the group, with Donald seeking to try and clear that up in his radio interview earlier this week.
He insisted that they saw the partnership as a longterm, 10 to 20 year project, and that their interest in investing not just in the club, but the wider city and region, was why he had done this deal, rather than leaning on his own funds, or Juan Sartori’s, to complete the projects the FPP cash will fund.
Why they backed out of taking a controlling stake as initially expected in favour of this more limited involvement is, Donald said, a ‘private matter for them’.
He said they did not want to control the day-to-day running of the club, and that is consistent with much of their investment portfolio.
Their interest and involvement in Sunderland has been welcomed by supporters, and given their long-standing interest in investing in European football, there is significant they have long-term interest in the club’s success and rise through the divisions.
Public clarity of that would be welcome, with the group so far declining to comment beyond backing an initial club statement released in the aftermath of the deal.
That said: “FPP Sunderland Limited is backing the current management of Sunderland AFC through a significant investment it has made in the club's holding company, Madrox Partners Ltd.
“With the completion of the new investment, Mr Stewart Donald remains the majority and controlling shareholder of Madrox Partners. Other terms of the investment are not being disclosed.
“The new investment is consistent with Mr Donald's intention to attract additional financial resources to support the second phase of his plan to regenerate the club, including investing in the club's academy, recruitment structure, stadium infrastructure and fan experience."
Donald has said that the only people who could lose from this deal were himself, Methven and Sartori.
If they were to default on the repayment, they would lose all their investment in the club, with FPP taking the assets. It is, therefore, lose-lose only for them, and not the club or its supporters.
That is true only if FPP’s long-term goal is the progression of the football club.
Donald insisted on more than one occasion that this was moot regardless. He would not default on the loan and both he and Sartori can cover it.
Crucially, he said that he ‘expected’ that future discussions over a full takeover would likely be possible.
How that relationship develops is key and it is also clear that is indeed very much related to Sunderland AFC, not just FPP and Madrox.
Indeed, it is fair to say that the relationship between those two parties will define the success of the football club for the next decade and beyond. Fans’ demand for clarity is more than justified.