{"id":559786,"date":"2020-07-27T12:28:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=559786"},"modified":"2020-07-27T12:28:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T16:28:10","slug":"sunderland-takeover-tycoon-william-storey-insists-he-is-in-the-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/27\/sunderland-takeover-tycoon-william-storey-insists-he-is-in-the-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunderland Takeover: Tycoon William Storey Insists He is in the Running"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reports yesterday suggested that current <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/sunderland\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunderland<\/a> owner <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/19\/stewart-donald-no-longer-sunderland-chairman-but-nothing-has-changed\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stewart Donald<\/a> had selected his prefered bidder for the club. Should these reports from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/53544603\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BBC Sport<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunderlandecho.com\/sport\/football\/sunderland-afc\/sunderland-afc-takeover-what-does-period-exclusivity-mean-and-whats-timeframe-deal-be-done-2924298\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunderland Echo<\/a> be true, then Donald has entered a period of exclusivity with the currently unnamed bidder. However, energy drinks tycoon William Storey used his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/richenergyceo\/status\/1287470975244738567?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">official Twitter account<\/a> to confirm he is still in the running for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/26\/sunderland-takeover-takes-positive-turn\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunderland<\/a> takeover.<\/p>\n<h2>William Storey Insists He Could Still Buy Sunderland<\/h2>\n<h3>Club Has Entered a Period of Exclusivity<\/h3>\n<p>Stewart Donald and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/22\/report-sunderland-and-portsmouth-linked-with-move-for-adam-le-fondre\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunderland<\/a> have now entered a period of exclusivity with a preferred bidder. As of yet, this bidder is still unknown. However, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunderlandecho.com\/sport\/football\/sunderland-afc\/sunderland-afc-takeover-what-does-period-exclusivity-mean-and-whats-timeframe-deal-be-done-2924298\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports<\/a>, it is not believed to be energy drinks tycoon and former Formula One sponsor William Storey.<\/p>\n<p>It was reported last week that Storey had launched a bid to buy Sunderland from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/07\/18\/sunderland-chairman-stewart-donald-resigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donald<\/a>. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11695\/12035418\/sunderland-energy-drink-entrepreneur-william-storey-launches-bid-to-buy-club\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sky Sports<\/a>, Storey had launched a bid to buy the League One club.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am limited in what I can say due to NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), but I can confirm that I have made a formal legal offer for Sunderland AFC,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have significant funding from blue-chip backers. Sunderland are a giant of English football &amp; their fans deserve a team to reflect that stature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #111111; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 22px;\">William Storey Wants Sunderland Takeover\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After the news broke yesterday with regards to Donald identifying his preferred bidder and that Storey was not believed to be that bidder, the CEO of Rich Energy took to Twitter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">All will become clear with situation at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Sunderland?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Sunderland<\/a> but current majority owners deserve credit for doing their best to do deal whilst managing stakeholder demands.There are notable creditors with leverage too. If my bid successful I will deliver significant investment &amp; ambition <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4MdxR7OSnd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4MdxR7OSnd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; William Storey (@richenergyceo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/richenergyceo\/status\/1287470975244738567?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 26, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In the comments section of his tweet, fans were understandably unsure whether Storey&#8217;s intentions were truthful. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/richenergyceo\/status\/1287496139181359114?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">He replied to those concerned<\/a> with: &#8220;I look forward to proving you wrong&#8221; and &#8220;I&#8217;m lucky to have some fantastic backers. I&#8217;m passionate about a Sunderland renaissance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Storey and His History in Sport<\/h3>\n<p>William Storey has been involved in football and sports in recent years to varying degrees of success. Storey and Rich Energy became the first sponsors of<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/west-ham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> West Ham United<\/a>&#8216;s women&#8217;s team. An ill-fated time in Formula One followed with a sponsorship deal of Haas. The sponsorship lasted less than a year before Storey and Rich Energy pulled out the multi-million-pound deal.<\/p>\n<p>Fans of Sunderland will be rightly concerned about how the deal with Haas played out; however, with Storey claiming he would deliver &#8220;significant investment and ambition&#8221;, he may be determined to get this right if only for the good of his reputation.<\/p>\n<p>At present, Stewart Donald&#8217;s preferred bidder is unknown and due to an expected non-disclosure agreement being in place, it could be some time before the truth comes out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ouODwh00SaJO57SWS9X4Zg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1188639858\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ouODwh00SaJO57SWS9X4Zg',sig:'_vbPfOWu4sX-Sc6Tz-Pf7t2nvYZJPLco-7TR37Jx7Do=',w:'594px',h:'407px',items:'1188639858',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story of a Sunderland takeover continues. After reports that the club had entered a period of exclusivity, William Storey insists he&#8217;s in the running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":559860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,1369],"tags":[168,657,90,2022,35,6170,6177,136],"class_list":["post-559786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-sunderland-league-football","tag-efl","tag-efl-league-one","tag-fifa","tag-stewart-donald","tag-sunderland","tag-sunderland-takeover","tag-william-storey","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}