Fake News: Trump Trust moves to buy Madrox stake in Sunderland AFC

THIS IS FAKE NEWS!

Roker Report understands from our sources that a US-based Trust linked to Donald J. Trump is interested in buying the 39% of Sunderland AFC that is currently on the market.

We understand that a £40 million deal is being lined up by an Aberdeenshire-based middle-man to purchase the shares from the London share brokers that was appointed by Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven earlier this year.

Speaking exclusively to Roker Report last night, the Scottish-based American businessman who asked to remain anonymous until a bid is formally launched, who described himself as a sports investment specialist with a long-standing relationship with the former first family through their golfing operations in Scotland, that TV-and social media addict “The Don” first became interested in investing in the north east club after being encouraged to watch Sunderland Til I Die in Netflix by his son Baron.

Our source said:

He told me straight up Sunderland is one of the greatest soccer team in England, with the greatest fans - their place in the Premier Division was stolen from them - he knows that they can win now, and with Donald involved, the club will win so much. He knows Dmitri [Rylobolev - owner of AS Monaco, Juan Sartori’s father in law] well, admires the current ownership group because of how they bought the club from fellow US tycoon Ellis Short with the club’s own money - they’re men he says he can do business with.

Photo by John Berry/Getty Images

When it was suggested that Trump was working closely with his friend Mohammed Bin Salmen in owning a slice of English football heritage in order to sportswash his tarnished global reputation, the source said it was nonsense “there was there was no collusion, no conspiracy”, just a love of Britain and soccer.

But the source did say that having concluded multi-million dollar deals with the Rybolovlev family in the past, he was confident he could work with current Sunderland AFC director Juan Sartori as well as young billionaire heir Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, but that “there is only room for one Donald”.

However, he is said to be thankful that the #DonaldOut campaign orchestrated against the former Eastleigh chairman by fans in January 2019 briefly distracted from the #DonaldOut campaign led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who he insists stole the 2019 US election despite winning more votes and states than he did.

Another part of the appeal of SAFC to the ex-host of The Apprentice USA was the appearance of his long-term friend and fellow hatemonger Nigel Farage on the globally-popular STID documentary series, which it was said had cemented his attachment to the city as “his kind of place, with his kind of people”.

When asked late on Thursday night about how a man accused of several serious crimes in the USA would be able to pass the owners and director test required of those with more than 30% of shares in a club, a source close to the EFL board, speaking off the record, told Roker Report “Have you seen some of the people we’ve let run football clubs? With his track record in business and the interest he will bring to League 1, we’d love to have him involved in one of our biggest supported teams, why not?”

We approached a source at Sunderland AFC, who simply said “you’re joking, right?” and refused to comment further on what they described as “ridiculously concocted speculation about a potential deal that is at a very early stage”.