Sunderland fans have took to rage over reports of the club shares being sold to a crypto group, just hours after good news emerged over season ticket sales.
Shareholders Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven are said to be in talks to selling their shares of the newly promoted side to a cryptocurrency group known as The Fans Together, and boy is hasn’t gone down well.
Northern Echo report that Donald and Methven, who owned a combined share of 39% of the club, had accepted an offer last week from an unnamed party for their shares with the sale expected to go through before the start of the Championship season.
A statement from The Fans Together has been going viral on social media confirming they are currently in discussions with the pair to buy their shares.
The statement reads: “The Fans Together, an organisation dedicated to bringing large scale widespread fan ownership to reality, confirms it is in discussions with Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven to acquire all of their 39% stake in Sunderland AFC.
“In Sunderland, we have deliberately chosen a club with a large fanbase that is in a sound financial state and we are keen to work with existing shareholders to continue to build momentum achieved through the recent promotion to the Championship.
“While discussions are ongoing, we are unable to provide further information at this moment in time. However, we will update fans and wider stakeholders as soon as possible.”
Exclusive statement from “The Fans Together” on their investment in #SAFC pic.twitter.com/FrdCuhvQnZ
— Tom White (@tomwhitemedia) June 7, 2022
On The Fans Together site, they say they are a “DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) dedicated to bringing sports fans together from across the globe to give them power and say in professional sports club”.
“To achieve this goal, we, The Fans Together, are utilising Tangle, a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) created by the IOTA Foundation to create a fast, free, frictionless way for fans to engage with their sports club. Through our governance structure, fans will have a real say in their club’s operations.”
Donald and Methven would voluntarily give up control of the club in February 2021 when Kyril Louis-Dreyfus acquired a 41% share of the club. However, a combination of Donald, Methven and Juan Satori, also known as Madrox, still have a stronger % share of the club.
It’s worth remembering that the Fans Together would have to pass the EFL’S Owners and Directors test for the takeover to be sanctioned with there being other hurdles to get over before going through.
Reports adds that Methven has confirmed that the pair are in talks with ‘two external parties’ who have submitted ‘acceptable offers’ for their shares of the club.
This news pretty much ruined Sunderland fans’ day after they club had announced their latest season ticket sales.
It’s revealed that 28,000 season cards at the club has been sold, some would say no surprise considering 46,000 made their way to the capital last month for the playoff final, and it’s been years since they wanted to see Sunderland playing Championship football again.
As mentioned, Sunderland fans took to rage over claims of the club shares being sold to a crypto group…
@SunderlandLad10: I’d like to write a formal apology to Charlie methven and Stewart Donald
@Gaz1221: Greek league 2 and Bradford Park avenue sound promising 🙈🙈
@sunderlandaye: So do they actually have any money?
@RejectedBook: Sounds like no and they just ask us for ours
@__mattbennett_: Can I cancel my season card? Seriously though this does not sound in any way attractive or appealing. So they have no money and have no high level experience. Hard MADROX renamed to TFT??
@jackdixon007: The only way this possibly works is the people that buy the shares of the 39% are loaded. If its ran by ordinary fans that own 0.1% each it will never work.
@TerryHobkirk: I was really looking forward to the new season a few hours ago. Now i hate life
@calpatty22: They do realise Sunderland isn’t in London don’t they? We aren’t exactly rolling in cash up here. I can barely afford to put petrol in the car never mind invest in my team when we need to sign a player ffs
@andy_lynn This sounds terrible. Asking for fan led ownership when there’s a cost of living crisis and most people are skint! Sunderland never do anything straightforward.
@dancarr1979: So basically want to take over with fans money 😂
@returnoflemack: They can f*ck off already
@TheSuperBright: Can you let them know that we’d rather they didn’t bother?
@SR7Liam: Did SD & CM search the earth to find something worse than themselves 😶
@VivaLaLads: Always liked Charlie Methven personally.
@GazJFisher: This sounds terrible, not gonna lie.
@JosephSpeckman: This isn’t attractive at all. A Greek second division team and Bradford park avenue aren’t selling points to our massive club. Even Eastleigh are bigger
@SafcJorrd: Absolutely fucking not.
@S_Garraghan: Well this is a total anti climax if this is the ‘investment’ being touted
@sunlunmaddog: What the fuck
@RobTate87: Fuck off is my statement
@CjgMng: Tinpot as fuck
@DeanoCummings85: sounds like a disaster waiting to happen
@craiglavender26: Don’t want this lot anywhere near the club @TheFansTogether
@garybartram1990: When things are going well they always deliver a kick in the nuts. Shambles if this is allowed to go through.
@DJB_1976: @EFL_Comms @EFL @EFLTrust I know you’ve a chequered past when it comes to club ownership but seriously don’t allow this car crash to happen.
@danielashton88: Greek super league 2 🤣
@dazzasafc85: ‘Large fanbase’ and ‘Sound financial base’ lines are 2 massive red flags for me and stink of we’re gonna rinse the fans again. Hope I’m wrong but it wouldn’t be SAFC without another false dawn. That’s all the positive energy around the club since Wembley is gone in one statement.
@M_Stubbs82: Got to be a piss take this
@johnnyjenko: If you’d like to advise “The Fans Together” that they’re not wanted at #safc, you can get them here… @TheFansTogether
@huds8118: 😂😂😂 they can “exclusively” get to fuck
@SLFingers: Fuck this nonsense.
@Maddo11SAFC: ffs. rather keep those two muppets. not much difference in 2 owners with no money to a bunch of owners with pretend money
@dairobs11: After watching the Sunderland doc on Netflix, I wouldn’t want Methven anywhere near my club. I know the way it’s edited together might not have helped, but he comes across as having an enormous ego and treated most of his staff like rubbish.
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here
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