Furious Sunderland supporters feel they have been misled after chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus revealed the club’s former owners still hold a majority share.
Fans had celebrated what they thought was a new majority owner when Swiss trust-fund billionaire Louis-Dreyfus completed his takeover in February of last year.
It was known then that the Madrox group consisting of Stewart Donald, Juan Sartori and Charlie Methven had retained what was believed to be a minority shareholding.
However, after months of speculation and unanswered questions from supporters, Louis-Dreyfus has confirmed he owns just 41 per cent of the club.
Donald (34 per cent), Sartori (25 per cent) and Methven (five per cent) hold the remaining shares which, if acting as a group, would mean Madrox is the majority stakeholder and the 'new era' promised by Louis-Dreyfus was misleading.
But the 24-year-old insists he has control of the League One club, who appointed Alex Neil as their new manager last week after a failed pursuit of Roy Keane, believed to be the preferred choice of the Madrox members.
‘As previously stated, I have executive control of the running of the football club – something that was a fundamental requirement upon the purchase of my shares – and the executive management team report directly into me on a day-to-day basis,’ said Louis-Dreyfus in a statement to supporters.
‘Over the past 12 months, SAFC has required significant shareholder funding as part of our ongoing investment within the club and as a result of the lasting financial challenges from the pandemic.
‘Substantial investment will continue to be required moving forward to ensure we fulfil our collective objectives and all shareholders remain wholly committed to honouring their respective financial obligations.’
But fans are not happy that the former owners - unpopular come the end of their reign - still retain such power and are required to fund the club.
Accountant Chris Weatherspoon wrote on Twitter: ‘The simple truth is that fans have been misled again. Coaxed into supporting a falsehood. A new “owner” had a chance to rebuild trust and he's blown it to bits.’