Revealed: What Sunderland AFC are REALLY worth - as American consortium near takeover

John Phelan, Robert Platek and Glenn Fuhrman are set to complete their acquisition of the Black Cats imminently, with a new company having been formed to finalise the deal.

But few details of the deal are known, including how much the club’s new owners will pay for their controlling stake.

However, sport finance expert Daniel Plumley, of Sheffield Hallam University, has offered his advice on what a takeover of the club should be worth.

And he believes a figure of £50million should be what the American consortium are targeting.

“Obviously it’s negotiable,” he explained.

“The estimate I would say with Sunderland is based on looking at the revenue of £20million or £30million and looking at the stadium and things like that.

“A conservative estimate, if we class them as a Championship club as they’re a big club in League One, would be around £50million.

“It may be a little bit higher than that, because of all the add-ons and things like that.

“Anything around the £50million mark would be a relatively comparable figure.”

The fee that changed hands last summer, when Stewart Donald took charge, was £40million - but the club’s current value is expected to be higher after the cost base reduced.

And Plumley has explained how the final fee paid by the American group is likely to be calculated - and why the Black Cats are one of the best investment opportunities in football.

He said: “When measuring a club’s value, we would look at the revenue of the club, their asset values - which are inflated slightly from what is in the accounts - and then you have the intangible stuff based around the fanbase, the history and where they stand in English football from a social point of view.

“If you look at the average revenues of Sunderland, they will increase if they go into the Championship or hit the Premier League jackpot.

“Their current revenue is much lower, so they would be a much cheaper investment with the potential to grow.”