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.
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But in his statement, Louis-Dreyfus - who is the club's largest single shareholder with a 41 percent stake - made it clear that he is working in concert with fellow shareholder Juan Sartori, who holds 20 percent of the shares, which means that with their combined 61 percent stake they have a controlling interest. Donald and Methven, who own 34 percent and five percent respectively, have shares but are without influence.
They do not have a seat on the board, and while they were at Wembley to see Sunderland win promotion via the play-offs last month, the fact that they were not even invited to the club's official post-game celebrations in central London is a sign of how they have been sidelined. Louis-Dreyfus also made clear that he had not spoken to TFT, and nor had any club employee - by implication, exonerating chief operating officer Steve Davison.
He added that any transfer of shares 'must not compromise the club's integrity', and signed off by saying 'all shareholders must also be qualified to take the club forward in line with EFL Governance and have alignment with the values and principles of SAFC and its supporters, as well as our long-term strategy'. Clearly, in his view, the purported TFT deal falls short on every level.
So what now? Well, some things are obvious.
Sunderland fans want Donald and Methven out immediately. Now that the club has been promoted to the Championship, Donald and Methven want to cash in their chips and bank a profit.
And, as Davison has previously said, Louis-Dreyfus wants to increase his stake in the club. The issue here is price, and that is the prism through which all the various links that have emerged over the summer - with TFT, with billionaire businessman John Reece, and with perennial stalking horse William Storey - should be viewed.
Donald and Methven want the best price they can get for their shares, and Louis-Dreyfus is determined not to pay over-the-odds. Ultimately, if Donald and Methven do strike a genuine deal with a credible third party, my understanding is that Louis-Dreyfus will have the option of matching that offer.
The problem for anyone buying in is that they would be expected to pay their share as far as funding the club is concerned, but would have no say, which is hardly an attractive proposition. And that is why the most likely outcome is that Louis-Dreyfus and/or Sartori will end up buying the shares in the end.
It is likely to be a slow process, however, while Donald and Methven try to establish the true worth of their stake. That delay is frustrating for fans, who just want them to sell up, repay the remainder of the parachute money they still owe the club, and disappear into the sunset.
In the meantime, the club can well do without the kind of embarrassing episode that has played out over the last 24 hours with this TFT farrago.
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