The release of the takeover ‘news’ yesterday had us all panicking. Upon reflection though, there is a real need for better media standards from so called reputable sources and a desperate need to examine and think critically about information before simply regurgitating it to the masses…
Yesterday just seemed deeply stupid and amateurish, didn’t it? For some, post Wembley positivity and optimism has faded. For some, it’s a grey and miserable day on Wearside, which is very much reflecting the mood around the club after the high of promotion. We are no strangers to a takeover bid; in fact, it’s become something of a summer ritual for us.
We’ve grown accustomed to notorious energy drink fraudsters with unkempt Shenandoah beards throwing their hats into the ring, but as revealed yesterday, there’s apparently an entirely new group involved. A confederacy of blinkered crypto weirdos are reportedly interested in our club.
If reading William Storey’s colourful tweets usually makes my brain want to grow legs and quickly leap out of my skull, the news of the Fans Together interest in the 39% stake finally killed it off, making it keel over and float to the top of my head. The way that the only visible parties interested in acquiring the club are different breeds of fantasists initially deeply troubled me, because it was reported by someone with a blue check mark on Twitter who, as a fan of the club, is therefore an ITK authority on club matters.
Of course, people with more failed businesses than sense shouldn’t pass fit and proper tests. KLD hinted as much in his iPhone statement released to the Sky Sports News breakfast host on Twitter yesterday evening, in another perfectly normal turn of events.
The Fans Together lot, just like wild Bill Storey, could surely not pass a fit and proper test. They have a quite frankly vile plan to monetise fans for every single drop of cash they can, but actually have no money of their own and have only slightly more experience of owning a football club than I, or you, do.
That being said, two of the current minority shareholders who wish to relinquish their stakes managed to pass the EFL’s hardly stringent ownership test. Despite this, I think it's glaringly obvious The Fans Together’s cartoonish plan to revolutionise football ownership is doomed to be a non-starter, thankfully for us. All you need to realise this is to do the most preliminary of searches, as it turns out.
However, Tom White reporting the news he was spoon fed of The Fans Together’s interest legitimised their ‘bid’ to an extent. Though The Fans Together post deluded things on Twitter constantly, the majority of our fanbase would never have heard of these fantasists had a Sunderland supporting Sky News reporter not given them a platform.
Those who have failed the club and kept them in League One for four disgusting years, have more than outstayed their welcome. So, it makes you question then the integrity of many of the supposed sports journalists if they are willing to become a facsimile mouthpiece. Is it newsworthy? How low are the standards of the media?
It’s unprofessional and it’s playing into the hands of those still clinging to the club behind the scenes. This, we can understand, is how they want it. They want to raise the price and if it means embarrassing the club and sending fans into meltdown, all the better for them, but what of the people the Sunderland supporting press are manipulating? Their fellow fans…
Yesterday must have been excellent for Sky’s engagement, but the media, not just Sky, has an obligation to vet information and sift through what is newsworthy, credible and true, before mindlessly repeating verbatim.
