Jim Rodwell responds to Sunderland AFC administration claims and gives takeover update

A national newspaper report on Friday night said that Stewart Donald had told fellow League bosses at a meeting on Thursday that the club was in danger of being placed into adminstration.

Clubs are currently discussing the terms of the bailout handed down by the Premier League.

Sunderland believe they are entitled to a significant portion of that due to the scale of their gate losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO Rodwell insisted that there is no immediate financial threat to the club, and said that the owners are continiung to cover losses of around £1 million a month.

"It’s just a non-story – I don’t know why they felt the need to run it," Rodwell said.

“I think it emanates from a League One meeting we had on Thursday, to discuss the distribution of the bailout that people will know about from the Premier League.

"It was really just us arguing that we should get a larger slice of the pot. Of course other clubs have different views of the world, and the EFL have an incredibly difficult job to do.

“That was it really. We were just talking through issues about that, and someone has leaked or briefed something. I can’t even remember if the word administration was ever used.

“Administration, as I tell people all the time, is just a mathematical fact really. If you don’t get money in and crowds in, everybody goes bust. That’s what it boils down to.

“But no, we’re not in any danger at all, so everybody can rest easy in that regard. We’re in the same boat as everybody else.

"The owners are funding the losses to around £1million-a-month at the moment, which they have done consistently. That is where we are.”

Rodwell also said that takeover talks continue to progress, with a consortium led by Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and and Juan Sartori expected to assume majority ownership.

"All I can really say is that the takeover situation remains ongoing," he said.

"It's a process that has to be gone through - and these things take time."

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