Sunderland fans have been misled. They've been taken in. Deceived. Hoodwinked.
For 12 months, they have been sold the line that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus held a 'controlling interest' in the club.
READ MORE: Kyril Louis-Dreyfus gives breakdown on Sunderland shares amid fans' ownership fears
That was the phrase used in the club's own announcement when Louis-Dreyfus bought into the Black Cats 12 months ago and was appointed chairman.
Then in November, the ownership group confirmed via a statement to the supporters' collective meeting that Louis-Dreyfus owned a 'controlling stake' in the football club, although they declined to give the precise shareholder split.
Time and time again over the last year, ChronicleLive and other local media outlets have asked how much of the club Louis-Dreyfus owns, and how much Madrox consortium members Stewart Donald, Juan Sartori, and Charlie Methven - all of whom, the club did admit, retained shares - still owned, but no answer came.
It was protected by a non-disclosure agreement, we were told, the same excuse used to fob off the supporters' groups.
Well, the truth is out now.
A club statement has confirmed that Louis-Dreyfus owns 41 percent of the shares.
I'm no mathematician, but that does not sound like a majority to me.
Donald retains 34 percent, Sartori 20 percent, and Methven five percent.
No single person holds a controlling stake but, taken together, the Madrox three hold 59 per cent of the club.
How anyone could describe Louis-Dreyfus as having a 'controlling stake' with 41 percent, but Donald's 34 percent as a mere 'minority shareholding' - as was set out in the club's announcement last February - is beyond me.
In today's statement, Louis-Dreyfus insists he has 'executive control of the running of the football club'.
'Executive control' rather than a 'controlling interest'. That sounds like a subtle shift of position.
The suspicions have been there for some time.
The way that Louis-Dreyfus, or anyone connected with the club at a senior level, clammed up whenever questions were asked about the shareholder split.
The refusal of Louis-Dreyfus to speak to any of the local media who cover the club on a day-to-day basis, and who might ask the kind of uncomfortable questions that he would rather not answer.
The fallback position of the NDA which apparently, until now, tied the club's hands when it came to talking in detail about the ownership group.
The careful choice of words surrounding the ownership group, when it always seemed the club was dancing on the head of a pin.
Perhaps a lawyer could forensically examine everything the club and Louis-Dreyfus has said about the ownership and conclude that no outright, bare-faced, lies have been told.
Maybe they could argue about voting rights, and different classes of shares.
Perhaps.
But perception is everything, and there is no doubt that supporters will feel misled.
They have been allowed, encouraged even, to believe one thing when the opposite was in fact the case.
Fans have been taken for fools by these people.
The catalogue of charges against the Madrox three is long and need not be aired again here, suffice to say they were already personae-non-gratae for the way they ran the club during the sorry two-and-a-half year spell when they at least publicly acknowledged their ownership.
Since then, Donald has largely kept away, Sartori has for the most part stayed in Uruguay to further his political career, but Methven has continued to attend games from time-to-time - most recently the defeat at Cheltenham and the draw at AFC Wimbledon.
Despite his tiny five percent stake, there have been concerns about just how much influence he truly wields behind the scenes, including during the recent search for a new head coach which resulted in the appointment of Alex Neil.
As for Louis-Dreyfus, he has been the public face of the ownership group, attending games home and away and generally giving the appearance of a new man in charge.
But in the eyes of many fans, he is now tainted and guilty by association.
The tension between fans and owners has returned to levels last seen in December 2019 when supporters' groups issued an open letter calling upon Donald to sell.
The idea was that he would find a buyer and make a clean break, not sell some of his shares and lurk in the shadows with the rest of the Madrox men.
Now we are at a point where the Augean stables need to be thoroughly mucked out.
Can Louis-Dreyfus recover his reputation amongst supporters? He faces a huge task and much depends on what happens next.
But if he is to have any chance at all of rehabilitation, the Madrox guys have got to go.
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