In a first in world football, the Black Cats have revived their iconic ship badge from 30 years ago but added rising sea water over the word Sunderland to drive home the “urgency” around climate change. It is part of Green Football’s Great Save initiative.
“This is something we’re really, really serious about – a football club can’t just be known for playing football,” he says.
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“No club has done something like this before but this is about much more than a piece of marketing buzz. Of course we want to get people talking about it but it’s authentic and as a club we’re deadly serious about it. This is not a ‘one and done’ thing.”
We should expect nothing less from the Championship’s disruptors-in-chief. A club prepared to be bold in its recruitment – and rewarded for their daring with a fine young team in the thick of a promotion push – is equally forthright about doing the right things for their local community.
“The point we’re making is: if we don’t make the right choices we’re going to be in a tough spot here,” he says.
Sunderland are in the midst of a promotion push (Photo: PA)
Sunderland sit fourth in the Championship and this week released their latest annual accounts that showed an £8.6m loss. Despite some missteps there is a feeling at the Stadium of Light that the club is moving in the right direction under the ownership of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
“Sustainability isn’t just about the environment, it’s financial as well and we’ve gone on the record as saying we want to be run sustainably,” he says.
“Even in the Championship – taking the Premier League aside because it’s well documented what happens to your revenue when you go into the Premier League – we’ve got a long way to go.
“When you think about our players, look at Jack Clarke and Ross Stewart, they’re transfers that show you bring people in for a price, sell them on but Jack left and we’ve got a ready-made replacement in Romaine Mundle and Tommy Watson. You’ve got the next generation as a fan, the next generation to be excited about.
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“That’s a model football has to adopt. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Manchester United, Chelsea or you’re Sunderland in the Championship.
“We want to continue along that path for as long as we can.”
“I think that on and off the pitch we’re trying to build a world class organisation,” he says.
“We want to build a world class organisation that does things slightly differently on and off the pitch. From a mindset point of view we’re there.
Sunderland are part of Green Football’s Great Save initiative, which runs to April 2. An estimated 100,000 tonnes of sportswear end up in landfill and fans are being urged to pass on, sell or reuse their kit. To find out how visit www.greenfootball.org
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