Manchester City had extra reasons to be celebrating Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League at the weekend
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LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 24: Sunderland's Tom Watson celebrates scoring his side's second goal with teammates during the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final match between Sheffield United and Sunderland at Wembley Stadium on May 24, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Dodd - CameraSport via Getty Images)
Patrick Roberts and the Sunderland players celebrate Tom Watson's winning goal
Manchester City will receive £2m from Sunderland after the north-east club booked their place back in the Premier League.
Sunderland beat Sheffield United 2-1 in a dramatic Championship play-off final on Saturday to return to the top flight after eight years.
The fixture is dubbed as the most lucrative game in the calendar because of the riches on offer to the club that makes it to the Premier League. As Sunderland count their winnings, they will have to send £2m of it down to the Etihad.
That is because of a clause put into a 2022 deal when Patrick Roberts left City after more than six years to join Sunderland. With just six months left on his contract at the time and having failed to get close to breaking into the first team under Pep Guardiola, the initial fee for Roberts was nominal.
However, payment clauses were inserted into the deal conditional on Sunderland achieving certain things with Roberts that made the potential fee £3m. The Black Cats were in the third tier at the time but won promotion at the end of that season and have worked their way out of the Championship after three years.
This promotion with Roberts, who started both legs of the semi-final win over Coventry and came off the bench in the final, is worth £2m to City and means that virtually all of the potential fee has now been paid.
Roberts may not have done enough at City to earn a rapturous reception when he comes to the Etihad next season, although the money will be gratefully received as the Blues count every penny for their summer rebuild.
City's owners may have extra reasons for being thankful Sunderland won promotion rather than Sheffield United. Had the Blades won the play-off final, the Premier League would have received tens of millions more in parachute payments that wouldn't be needed that they could put towards legal battles with City.
Sunderland coming up also means there is only 11 clubs with US ownership in the league next season rather than 12 that there would have been with Sheffield United.
With Premier League votes only needing consensus from 14 clubs to pass and change legislation, the bigger the block of clubs that have opposite interests to City the more difficult they will find things.
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