Sunderland secured their return to the Premier League with a win over Sheffield United at Wembley
Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League has landed the club a spectacular financial windfall, though it will now also face a transfer bill as a number of promotion clauses are now activated.
The club will now of course make Enzo Le Fée their first summer signing after the win over Sheffield United triggered the obligation-to-buy clause in the loan deal that brought him to Wearside from AS Roma in January. That deal is widely reported to potentially cost Sunderland in the region of 23 million Euros if all clauses are met, which would surpass the club-record deal to sign Didier Ndong in 2016.
But promotion will also see Sunderland pay out for a number of the players recruited in previous windows. The Manchester Evening News report that promotion to the top tier will trigger a payment of around £2 million to Manchester City as part of the deal that brought him to the club in 2022. Sunderland paid a nominal initial fee to recruit Roberts, but with a number of future bonus clauses included.
This is how many of the deals that Sunderland have been structured in recent years, allowing the Black Cats to recruit top talent while keeping squad costs relatively low. The payment to Manchester City will be one of numerous to other clubs from whom Sunderland have recruited on their way back to the top tier.
This costs was alluded to in the club's most recent set of accounts, released earlier this year and covering the 2023/2024 campaign where Sunderland finished 16th. The accounts confirmed that the club could potentially pay out around £30 million in future bonuses, though added that the possibility of reaching that maximum figure is 'extremely remote'. Promotion will also mean a significant bonus bill for individual players, who have produced an exceptional campaign to put Sunderland back in the top tier.
The accounts read: "Under the terms of certain contracts for the purchase of players' registrations, future payments may be due to third parties, dependent on the success of the team and/or individual players. At the balance sheet date, the maximum contingent liability, none of which was provided for in these financial statements, was £29,607,066, some of which are extremely remote.
"Any additional fees which may become payable or receivable under these agreements will be accounted for in the year that it becomes probably that the event will occur."
Of course, the bill does not alter the fact that Sunderland return to the Premier League in a very strong financial position. Promotion will earn them a minimum of around £200 million in TV broadcast revenues over the next three years, and that is in the worst-case scenario that they are relegated and do not return in the following two campaigns. Promotion will also spark a wide variety of new commercial revenue opportunities.
Sunderland were also in an increasingly strong financial position heading into the play-offs, having sold Jack Clarke to Ipswich Town for an initial fee of around £15 million last summer. The club then agreed the sale of Tommy Watson to Brighton, the deal potentially banking Sunderland £11 million of all clauses are met. Jobe Bellingham could also leave the club in the coming weeks amid fierce interest from the Bundesliga, which would be another massive financial windfall for the Black Cats.
So the Black Cats head into the summer transfer window very well placed, though the Roberts news is a reminder that there are also some significant costs to consider when viewing the transfer picture as a whole.
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