If The Fans Together ownership model is reliant on the support of the fans, their hopes of buying into Sunderland have been strangled at birth. TFT's statement announcing that they were holding talks with Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven regarding the purchase of that duo's combined 39 percent stake in the club was greeted with a giant raspberry, to put it politely, from supporters on social media.
Of course, social media reaction is not the be-all and end-all - plenty of fans do not partake in the online debate - but for a group (or Decentralised Autonomous Community, as TFT call themselves) looking to raise funds to buy shares through the sale of crypto tokens, it is a pretty good barometer of the mood of their target market. And if citing their 'successful track record' as owners of Greek Super League 2 club FC Episkopi, and trumpeting the appointment of ex-Bradford Park Avenue executive Bob Robinson as the man leading their 'SAFC Project', was designed to give their bid credibility, I fear they have badly miscalculated.
Sunderland chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has issued a statement of his own distancing himself and the club from the mooted deal and, while couched in diplomatic terms, it was impossible to miss the overpowering whiff of scepticism that underpinned his response. Sunderland have already said that, regardless of the precise shareholder split, Louis-Dreyfus is in 'full control' of the club and makes all the decisions.
