Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven have responded to the shareholding shitshow, after KLD finally admitted he does not have a majority.
A spokesperson for Stewart Donald said: “When Kyril Dreyfus arrived last year as SAFC’s major shareholder, Stewart was happy to hand over control of the running of the club to him and, together with Charlie Methven, voluntarily waived their right to be on the board. From that moment on, with Kyril Dreyfus and Juan Sartori being on the board, Stewart’s only active involvement has been covering his pro-rata funding commitment. In the period directly preceding Kyril Dreyfus’ arrival in February 2021, the combined effects of COVID and the Alvarez case (where the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Sunderland must pay former winger Ricky Alvarez £4.7 million in compensation last January) necessitated cash injections from the then-shareholders (Madrox) of £11.35 million into Sunderland AFC, as revealed in the accounts published last summer.”
“Subsequently in Kyril Dreyfus’ first year in charge, the amount required has been £8.1 million to date, which is expected to rise to around £10 million by the summer (making total shareholder funding more than £21 million in less than three years). Throughout that time, in common with all shareholders, Stewart has contributed his share of financing pro rata to his shareholding. He has made it clear throughout that he is happy to sell the remainder of his shares internally to the other shareholders at the same level he has already accepted initially.”
Charlie Methven added: “I have deliberately not taken up my seat on the board because, just like Stewart, I don’t want to have an active role in the running of the club. Like Stewart, I would be very happy to sell my shares. But, in the meantime, I will continue to provide my share of the financing of the club.”
Former SAFC player, Gordon Armstrong, who has been very opinionated regarding Donald and Methven said: “The truth is as you will know this (KLD not having a majority) has been an open secret amongst plenty of people for a while, the bit I don’t get is why try and hide it, the fact supporters weren’t told the whole truth at the beginning makes it so much worse. KLD took over in January 2021 as I remember, so why not just tell the truth then, but say he runs the club all that? If you got about £18m lying around might give you a chance, although that probably isn’t enough to remove Madrox.”
