Saw this in the Guardian....
Story is about The Mackems...I have highlighted the relevent bit.
Rising debt of £26m may see Sunderland in administration
Michael Walker
Tuesday May 13, 2003
The Guardian
Sunderland's chairman Bob Murray yesterday refused to rule out the Wearside club going into administration this summer after relegation from the Premiership.
Sunderland's debt is £26m and growing, and they have the seventh-highest wage bill in England. Murray answered ambiguously when asked if administration was a possibility over the close season.
"I can't guarantee it," Murray said. "We are doing everything within our powers and taking every decision to ensure that isn't a possibility. Sunderland will implement its financial plan and will do what it has to do to secure its future."
Murray was given the opportunity to say outright that administration will not occur, but he did not take it. He described Sunderland's economic situation as "vicious". But the chairman, who has been ill recently with stress caused partly by Sunderland's decline, said he has returned to the club full-time and will not be resigning. "The bank wants leadership," he pointed out.
The implications of demotion are ever greater now that Football League chairmen are considering a points punishment for any club that applies for administration. The subject will be debated at their agm next month.
One of the financial measures being examined, said Murray, is a securitisation of its debt via another bank loan. A few weeks ago the departing chief executive Hugh Roberts said the club was financially stable, but yesterday Murray painted a much bleaker picture.
"You've heard of the feelgood factor," Murray said, "I think I have had the feelbad factor."
Sunderland are making 83 non-playing staff redundant, closing club merchandise shops, and all its residential properties are up for sale. Next the squad, about whom Murray was scathing, will be cut. David Bellion left yesterday for Manchester United for a fee to be fixed by tribunal, but others who remain will be made unwelcome at training when it resumes, a confrontational and controversial approach.
"I blame myself but the players aren't short of money, are they?" Murray said. "How many of them can look at themselves in the mirror this morning?
"We have to achieve a wage-bill reduction. We are the biggest club ever to be relegated from the Premiership and everybody is looking at us to see how we survive. The enormity of the failure is immeasurable.
"The bank has been very supportive. You can't build a stadium like this and a training ground like that, spend £22m on players last summer and have the seventh-highest wage bill without getting into debt."
Murray has taken much personal abuse from fans. Did he have a message for them? "I apologise," he said.
Story is about The Mackems...I have highlighted the relevent bit.
Rising debt of £26m may see Sunderland in administration
Michael Walker
Tuesday May 13, 2003
The Guardian
Sunderland's chairman Bob Murray yesterday refused to rule out the Wearside club going into administration this summer after relegation from the Premiership.
Sunderland's debt is £26m and growing, and they have the seventh-highest wage bill in England. Murray answered ambiguously when asked if administration was a possibility over the close season.
"I can't guarantee it," Murray said. "We are doing everything within our powers and taking every decision to ensure that isn't a possibility. Sunderland will implement its financial plan and will do what it has to do to secure its future."
Murray was given the opportunity to say outright that administration will not occur, but he did not take it. He described Sunderland's economic situation as "vicious". But the chairman, who has been ill recently with stress caused partly by Sunderland's decline, said he has returned to the club full-time and will not be resigning. "The bank wants leadership," he pointed out.
The implications of demotion are ever greater now that Football League chairmen are considering a points punishment for any club that applies for administration. The subject will be debated at their agm next month.
One of the financial measures being examined, said Murray, is a securitisation of its debt via another bank loan. A few weeks ago the departing chief executive Hugh Roberts said the club was financially stable, but yesterday Murray painted a much bleaker picture.
"You've heard of the feelgood factor," Murray said, "I think I have had the feelbad factor."
Sunderland are making 83 non-playing staff redundant, closing club merchandise shops, and all its residential properties are up for sale. Next the squad, about whom Murray was scathing, will be cut. David Bellion left yesterday for Manchester United for a fee to be fixed by tribunal, but others who remain will be made unwelcome at training when it resumes, a confrontational and controversial approach.
"I blame myself but the players aren't short of money, are they?" Murray said. "How many of them can look at themselves in the mirror this morning?
"We have to achieve a wage-bill reduction. We are the biggest club ever to be relegated from the Premiership and everybody is looking at us to see how we survive. The enormity of the failure is immeasurable.
"The bank has been very supportive. You can't build a stadium like this and a training ground like that, spend £22m on players last summer and have the seventh-highest wage bill without getting into debt."
Murray has taken much personal abuse from fans. Did he have a message for them? "I apologise," he said.
