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Sunderland chief executive Martin Bain says a number of parties have expressed ‘meaningful’ interest in buying the club - and new ownership is the ‘game-changer’ the Black Cats so desperately need.

Owner Ellis Short is desperate to sell-up and Bain is working to find a buyer, with several credible consortia and individuals believed to have been in contact.

There has also been repeated speculation that, if the club is not sold this summer, Short could put the club into administration but Bain says the US-based billionaire has no intention of doing so.

Bain’s priority is trying to facilitate a sale, and while the club’s relegation to League One cannot be regarded as anything other than a catastrophic failure, he hopes it will at least bring some clarity to the takeover process because any potential buyer now knows the size of the task they will be taking on.

(Image: Sunderland AFC)

“There are a few parties who are currently looking at the club in a meaningful way,” said Bain, who cannot reveal details of any potential buyers due to non-disclosure agreements.

“I would really hope that now the club knows its position in terms of which league it will be playing in, that might give some clarity to any potential buyer to formulate their thoughts and a deal.

“I have one single priority at the moment, to try and assist a sale and help full diligence be done.

“We have an owner who is very actively trying to sell the club and that will be the game-changer for Sunderland AFC.

“We hope that a new owner comes in, will have a better financial backdrop than what there has been in recent years and will be able to provide that spark.

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“What we have at the club is good people, passionate people, a wonderful fanbase, fantastic facilities.

“I feel positive because anybody who looks at the club now, can see that it is a distressed asset but one that has all the fundamentals.

“These things give you hope that someone will see this and see that it is a fantastic club to acquire.

“It surprises me that it has not been sold before now, maybe that is people seeing what is under the bonnet when they look.”

Part of Bain’s task is to filter out the timewasters from the credible candidates when it comes to potential buyers.

He said: “You can imagine the number of people who pretend to have the money to buy a football club, they come forward and it ends up being a complete waste of time.

“So my role is to try to filter those out.

“Then where there are serious candidates, it is a case of getting one key stakeholder or investor – rather than a middleman – to have discussions with Ellis.

“Ellis knows the headline price that he would like and how those payments should be staged, and then he will hand them back to me and I will guide them through due diligence.

“That’s the point when I sit down and explain what has gone wrong in the past which has got the club to where it is, but don’t look at where it is now out of context, let me show you what a fantastic football club it can be again if A, B, C, and D are done.

“I am actively involved in player recruitment, but this [the takeover] is so time-consuming because everyone wants a different model, everyone wants to understand the cashflow forecasts, everyone wants to understand players’ contracts, the liabilities, and future payments to clubs.

“Despite the fact you have it all there in the data, it still needs explanation.”

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Sunderland’s latest accounts, released last April, show the club was £110m in debt and lost £33m in the 2015-16 season.

But asked whether that debt is the biggest stumbling block to finding a buyer, Bain said: “I wouldn’t say debt is the fundamental problem, I’d say it was very much about the running costs and future financial forecasts.

“You have, for example, players who don’t want to be here eating up vasts amount of our budget.”

If no sale is agreed, the question is ‘what happens next?’

Sunderland’s financial situation is such that rumours of administration keep surfacing, but Bain insisted: “Ellis does not have any desire to put the club into administration.

(Image: Sunderland AFC)

“Ellis funds the club’s losses, I have spoken to him and he has assured me that he will continue to do so.

“He has told me that he will not put the club into administration.”

But if Short does remain in charge, Bain says he and manager Chris Coleman would have to hold talks with the owner to discover what - if any - funding he is prepared to release for the team next season.

Beyond funding the losses, Short has refused to invest in the team in recent seasons but with around 14 players likely to leave this summer - either at the end of their loans, or when their contracts expire - the squad will need to be rebuilt.

“This summer, if the club is not sold, we’re looking at probably 14 players required,” he said.

“At that point I would have to sit down with Ellis and present those facts and present a plan that we believe in to take Sunderland forward.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“It’s not just about money, because I think people have asked him for money in the past without really having a plan.

“But we will need to understand what Ellis’s appetite and desire and input is, because it is all very well me and Chris putting together a plan but ultimately we need to know Ellis’s appetite for that.

“I still have the same desire to work here, the same passion for the club, and the same desire to turn it around, but if it doesn’t change hands then everything depends on that conversation with Ellis.”