Sunderland left with £20million hole in club accounts, reports claim

Sunderland are facing a £20.5m hole in their club accounts – according to reports.

A leaked draft set of accounts for the year ending July 2019 have been seen by the Daily Mail and the Times, who have revealed the staggering eight-figure shortfall in the club’s coffers.

And as per the national reports, a number of investors who have looked at purchasingor investing in the club have been deterred by this significant hole.

The Mail and Times claim that the £20.5m gap in the balance sheet represents one of the parachute payments to the Black Cats, which were due following their relegation to the Premier League.

This sum has previously been reported to have been used to facilitate Donald’s purchase of the club for a sum of £40m.

The purchase was facilitated through a holding company –Madrox Partners–and the national reports suggest that this £20.5m sum was used to help fund the deal.

It was previously suggested that this money would be repaid by the shareholders.

But the report claims that the money has now been written-off by Donald and his fellow shareholders by way of an 'exceptional operating expense'

– which removes their legal obligation to repay the money.

Sunderland have claimed that the money will be repaid as either a gift or by means of shareholders’ funds.

They say that this process has already begun, but that it will take until the release of next year’s accounts for this to be evidenced.

A full club statement said: “Madrox has continued to invest funds as required, (which will be reflected in next year's figures) and in a way to ensure the club remains debt free, as promised.

“This has resulted in SAFC receiving around £11.5m since the year end, from Ma dr ox. The funds are interest free and replace a significant portion of the parachute monies.

“This takes the total Ma dr ox investment to around £25m, to date. This investment, two years into their five-year plan, is ahead of schedule.”

A number of potential investorstold the Mail and Times that this hole in the club’s accounts – with no guarantee of repayment from the current owners – proved a stumbling block when they considered a takeover of the club.

Indeed, this paper understands that this was a significantissue for Mark Campbell’ s consortium when they negotiated last summer.