It seems we have an owner and Chair to be proud of in Ellis Short. He is using the platform of Sunderland Association Football Club to reach out beyond football itself and into the community in general. It appears that he will bring benefit to business in the North East as well as overseeing the rise of Sunderland as a force in football. This work has carried on seamlessly from the foundations put in place by Nial. To put this into context, look at vanity - Roman Abramovich or Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan or greed - Venkyâs, the Glaizers even Ashley, Ellis seems to have a philanthropic bent. Obviously he is a very successful business man and having acquired a football club where making money at our level is nigh on impossible he has in his possesion a vehicle to put his undoubted talent to use in the community (Sunderland) and the world in general (Invest In Africa(IIA)). Reading between the lines no money will be received directly from IIA but we(the club) will get funding from partners bough onboard by this not for profit organisation. Undoubtedly some cash will have been stumped up by Tullow but this is just the beginning. From the first giant step taken by Murray with the SOL and AOL we now have an owner that can take us to a completely different level in terms of business acumen and this will be reflected on the pitch. Appointments like the 'should have been PM' Miliband and Byrne show he has the ability to assemble a team off the pitch to put SAFC at the top of the table, strong deep roots mean good growth! Ellis take a bow sir, with you at the helm I see bright times ahead!
Completely agree, was listening to his radio interview yesterday and it just seemed as if everything was in place and there was planning for the club that was realistic and also what he wanted to happen Expanding the fan-base to accumulate finances for transfers/wages and also by saying a few quality players will be coming in, got to admit he has done his homework on this one I would say that we have God (Ellis Short) and Jesus (MON) at the helm, and its looking good!
I know we are a little biased but this, bringing in O'Neill, the now very successful concerts. Just got a feeling that slowly, slowly our club are moving in the right direction for the club and the community for all the right reasons.
I am more optimistic about the future of SAFC than I can ever remember. Ellis Short and Martin O'Neill are just the perfect fit for us. I think we can also see the influence of Sir Niall though, as Adrian Heavey, the CEO of Tullow Oil, is Irish and I am sure this linkup work began last year or even earlier.
A snippet from Aiden Heavey, let's hope he's right. http://www.footballfancast.com/2012/06/football-news/sunderland-land-lucrative-shirt-deal
Would love to know his thought on just how he hopes to wrestle the population of Africa's attention, away from Man U. Liverpool etc...
An innovative player sponsorship model, maybe, one that will become the norm in football, maybe ;D Plus a big picture of the African Subcontinent on the strips for two years then this please log in to view this image
