The former Sunderland owner and chairman didn’t think he would ever see the club back in the Premier League
Sir Bob Murray has revealed he feared he would never see Sunderland in the Premier League again, describing the club’s return to the top flight as an emotional and almost unbelievable moment.
Speaking exclusively to The Echo, the former chairman opened up about the despair he felt during the club’s darkest days, and his gratitude at witnessing a revival he once believed impossible.
“I mean, when I went to our last game eight years ago, I think it was at Swansea, I said to my wife that night, ‘I will never see Sunderland again in the Premier League in my life,’” he admitted. “That’s the last Premier League game I’m going to see in my life at the Stadium of Light.”
Murray, who chaired the club between 1986 and 2006, didn't hold back in reflecting on the decline that followed with Sunderland suffering back-to-back relegations from the Premier League to League One under Ellis Short, before remaining in the third tier for four seasons.
“After Ellis Short, I was lucky to have a football club at the end of that,” he said. “Those players who pulled that shirt on should never have been anywhere near it. I’m not going to name names—but they shouldn’t have been there. That’s where we’ve come from. The journey has been enormous.”
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The 78-year-old, who oversaw some of the most important chapters in Sunderland's modern history, was visibly moved by the club’s return to the Premier League under Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. “I’m a bit speechless, to be truthful,” he said. “I’m so grateful for what everybody’s done for this club.”
Who is Sir Bob Murray and when did he own Sunderland?
Sir Bob Murray is one of the most influential figures in Sunderland’s modern history, having chaired the club for over two decades between 1986 and 2006. Born in County Durham, Murray is a lifelong Sunderland supporter who oversaw some of the club’s most transformative moments, both on and off the pitch.
His tenure included two promotions to the Premier League and the construction of the Stadium of Light in 1997, replacing Roker Park and ushering in a new era for the club. Under his guidance, Sunderland established themselves as a top-flight outfit at the turn of the millennium, recording back-to-back seventh-place finishes under Peter Reid.
Murray also played a pivotal role in the founding of the Foundation of Light, one of the largest football club-affiliated charities in the UK, and later led the creation of the Beacon of Light, a state-of-the-art community hub in Sunderland focused on education, sport, and wellbeing.
He sold the club to the late Niall Quinn's Drumaville Consortium in 2006 but was knighted in 2003 for services to education, business, and charity. Murray also helped build England’s training ground, St George’s Park, and played a hand in helping get the new Wembley project off the ground.
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