US investor talks openly about failed Sunderland takeover bid & what they planned to do with us

Mark Campbell, the businessman who attempted to purchase Sunderland from Stewart Donald recently, is close to taking over Scottish League One side Falkirk, with the aim of making them one of the biggest six clubs in Scotland.

Campbell has been speaking to the Daily Mail about his aims for the club but during the interview he also discussed his failed takeover of Sunderland.

He would not rule out making another move for Sunderland sometime in the future - a plan which would see Falkirk become a feeder club - but he is adamant that the attempted takeover did not stall due to finances and had nothing but complimentary things to say about the current Sunderland board:

Far from it.

We spent a lot of time working on the Sunderland project and I have to hold my hat up to the current owners of the club Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven.

I have a very good relationship with Stewart and a very good relationship with the Managing Director Neil Fox.

Like us they were really keen to get the deal over the line. But we fell short and it was not for the want of trying.

It was certainly nothing to do with finance or money. There was just a few things that couldn’t happen.

Timing was a big issue for us.

You can’t expect it to be done quickly with a club with a turnover of £160million.

When you are dealing with a club like Falkirk with a turnover of £2.8million it’s going to be quicker.

The aim was to buy both clubs and manage and run both clubs.

There were dual ownership governance issues we knew we would come up against.

But we would have worked something round that.

We were very open with the Scottish FA and English Football League when we started this process. All credit to them, they were great as well.

Would I look again at the idea? You can never say never.

You never know what’s around the horizon in the coming years and it would be foolish for me to say otherwise.

But at the moment we have a new Falkirk stand to build, we have an academy which we plan to build on the grounds over the next three years. We have another facility we plan on the other side of the ground as well.

We need to get this club to be ready for the Scottish Premier League.

It’s not going to happen overnight, but when we get there we will be ready.