‘The Fans Together’ releases message after investment plan ended

The Fans Together group has released a statement after it was confirmed Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is now the majority shareholder at Sunderland AFC.

The move has seen Charlie Methven’s 5% stake in the club purchased in its entirety, while Stewart Donald’s has been reduced to 19%.

Juan Sartori has joined Louis-Dreyfus in increasing his stake in the club, with the latter now holding a 51% stake.

Louis-Dreyfus bought into the club in February 2021 and while he negotiated full governance control, it was confirmed earlier this year that he owned only 41% of shares.

As of this morning, this has now increased to 51%.

This move signals the end of the controversial bid by' The Fans Together' cryp to currency group, who announced recently that they had agreed a price with Donald and Methven.

Louis-Dreyfus had responded to that bid by stating his close alliance with Juan Sartori moving forward. Sartori has now also increased his stake in the club, now owning 30%. The Fans Together group said :" The Fans Together would like to wish Sunderland AFC every success for the future.

"We were committed to completing the acquisition of a 39% stake in the club, however while our negotiations were at an advanced stage, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Juan S art ori elected to exercise their pre-emption rights under the shareholders agreement.

"We remain committed to bringing large scale widespread fan ownership to reality and look forward to further proving our model and giving a real voice back to the fans, sports' most important stakeholders."

Sunderland have said that the governance of the club will remain unchanged.

A club statement from SAFC said: "Sunderland AFC announces that Kyril-Louis Dreyfush as increased his ownership stake in the club to 51%. In parallel, Juan S art orih as increased his stake to 30%. Governance remains unchanged.

"The shares have been acquired through the purchase of shares held by Charlie Methv en, who has sold all of his shares, and Stewart Donald, who has sold down his stake to 19%."

Sunderland returned for pre-season training on Wednesday as they look to step up their preparations for the first campaign back at Championship level. Sunderland won promotion back to the Championship thanks to the 2-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers in the League One play-off final.