US Investor Takes Over At Sunderland

American businessman Ellis Short has become the majority stakeholder in Premier League club Sunderland having steadily built up his shareholding.

The Dallas-based Irish-American millionaire became the largest single shareholder in the Drumaville Consortium which owns the North-East club.

Short is thought to own almost a third of the club and, along with his fellow investors, the businessman injected £30m into the club’s summer transfer kitty.

Short becomes the fifth American-based businessman to take a significant stake in a Premier League football club in the past two years following in the footsteps of Randy Lerner at Aston Villa, Stan Kroenke at Arsenal, and Tom Hicks and George Gillett at Liverpool.

Short was not an original member of the nine-man Drumaville Consortium, led by chairman Niall Quinn, who purchased the club from former chairman Bob Murray for £10m in 2006.

The consortium was made up of London property developers and publicans who provided crucial investment to purchase the club and guaranteed £40m of debt. They will remain key figures in the future of the club but, with the Irish economy having slid into recession, their ability to invest new funds has been limited.

Discussions over increasing Short’s shareholding opened six months ago and concluded with Short agreeing to take advantage of a share issue that raised more than £30m, necessary to fund the club’s summer spending. It left him with the largest single stake at more than 30%, and effective control of the club.