Tom Burwell explains why Sunderland have sold their women's team - and why it's not about SCR
Sunderland AFC have completed the sale of their women’s team - but retain a minority stake
Tom Burwell insists that the sale of Sunderland Women is the best outcome for all parties.
US multi-club ownership group Bay Collective officially completed their takeover this week, with Sunderland AFC retaining a minority shareholding in the group. The sale has no benefit to Sunderland under the Premier League’s incoming Squad Cost Ratio rules, but there is an obvious boost for the ownership with a short-term cash injection into the club.
However, the club’s interim CEO insists the sale was not about money but recognising that dedicated expertise is required. He insists that there will be a greater benefit financially to the club in the long run from this partnership through that minority shareholding, as success under Bay Collective will see the club’s revenues grow.
“First and foremost, the financial regulations are completely different now anyway,” Burwell explained.
“So the opportunity for a Premier League side to sell off parts to help itself in the modern world of SCR is not the way that that's going to work. First of all, it's quite nice that that loophole is closing on others, but that was never our mandate here
“Our mandate was that, if we make it about where we sat as a football club, we were operating a women's football club without the level of expertise that was required to be competitive at the highest level. And we also recognise that Sunderland AFC as an overall commercial brand and as an overall engagement of fans is going to be stronger if we have a really successful women's club. We did not have the expertise to ensure that that was in place. So finding somebody that is able to do that, whether it's indirect or direct, the men's football club is going to be better for that.”
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Burwell says that after almost a year of talks, he is confident Sunderland have the best possible partner in Bay Collective.
Burwell said: “From the absolute outset, the conversation was how can Sunderland AFC continue to position and really concentrate on developing women's football in the North East, recognising the challenges that we have and having attempted to do that over the last four or five years.
“And that was the clear mandate set to me by the board, to find a partner that first and foremost cared about developing football here in this region, knowing that if we built those key fundamentals we have the opportunity to compete at the very highest level. So I think if you go back to our reasons and our wants to do that, we want this football club to be representative of every demographic in the region, giving the opportunity to continue to play football or be the entry point to play football. And with an organisation that deeply understands women's football in a way that we do not, an organisation that understands how to spend capital appropriately as part of a wider women's football organisation and ecosystem around the world, that puts us in a unique position.
“So our excitement comes from knowing that ultimately Sunderland AFC will be stronger if we have a stronger women's programme and more people engaging in the sport in the region. So having a partner that's able to put that at the forefront has worked out perfectly for us.”
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