Glamour friendly lined up to mark 20 years at Stadium of Light

SUNDERLAND are set to prepare for their Championship campaign with a mainly domestic pre-season programme - with a prestige friendly to mark the 20th anniversary of the move to the Stadium of Light providing the centre-piece.

Before resigning as manager on Monday, David Moyes had drawn up plans for the Black Cats’ preparations.

And with the players due to report back to the Academy of Light in just five weeks’ time, it seems unlikely Moyes’ successor will make major changes to the schedule that has already been mapped out.

Moyes had set June 29 as the day for players to reassemble on Wearside, before taking the squad to a training camp in Austria at the beginning of July.

His plan was there will be no games in Austria, but when they return they would play their first friendly in England before heading to Scotland to play several games.

Another friendly against English opposition was been pencilled in before the showpiece game on Wearside.

Moyes also suggested one or possibly two games could be added somewhere in Europe, but only as part of a three-day visit.

Opponents for the domestic friendlies have already been lined-up, but they will only be announced once contracts have been signed and the dates have been confirmed.

The Stadium of Light fixture will be Sunderland’s first home friendly since Italian giants Juventus visited Wearside in August 2007 to mark the ground’s tenth anniversary.

Moyes himself was keen for the club to play at least one friendly at home every summer, saying: “One suggestion I made was that we need to get used to having a pre-season friendly at home.

“Going back years, the club has got off to poor starts and I want to do something about that. Starting the season with a home game might help.

“And having a pre-season friendly at home might also help - it would certainly do no harm, and it would mean that more fans would be able to see the team before the league starts.”