Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus plots new takeover in 2025 as two big new hires confirmed

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Kyril Louis-Dreyfus was an unknown quantity when he became the youngest chairman in English football upon his takeover of Sunderland in 2021.

The heir to a £4bn fortune, Louis-Dreyfus has increased his stake in the club over time and now, in tandem with Juan Sartori, owns 100 per cent of the club.

He was initially welcomed at the Stadium of Light by virtue of simply not being Stewart Donald or Charlie Methven, the characters who most fans agreed had turned Sunderland into a circus.

Bur nearly four years into his premiership, the 27-year-old has had a fair whack of success in his own right.

Sunderland were promoted from League One at the fourth time of asking in 2022 and reached the play-off final in 2022-23 under Tony Mowbray.

With a 16th-place finish in the Championship, 2023-24 was a disappointment but the owners have recruited ambitiously in 2024-25. Crucially, they have not only spent big but have also spent well.

Wilson Isidor is on a poor run of form but has shown more than enough this term to convince that converting his loan from Zenit into a permanent deal was the correct call.

Trai Hume and Jobe Bellingham have come into full flower this season and, in a testament to the player trading model under Louis-Dreyfus, have major resale value.

Chris Rigg meanwhile has caught the eyes of several Premier League sides and his development is a testament to the owners’ investment in the academy, which has maintained Category One status.

In Regis le Bris, Louis-Dreyfus and Sartori hired a manager who was a virtual unknown but has now got Sunderland in the play-offs.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LeedsLeeds	42	25	13	4	82	29	53	88
2	BurnleyBurnley	42	24	16	2	57	13	44	88
3	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	42	26	7	9	57	33	24	83
4	SunderlandSunderland	42	21	13	8	57	38	19	76
5	Bristol CityBristol City	42	16	16	10	54	45	9	64
6	CoventryCoventry	42	18	9	15	59	54	5	63

In terms of the underlying financials too, the club is on far surer footing than it was four years ago.

Turnover has steadily increased and the losses that the Black Cats make are very manageable in the context of the Championship, where the numbers simply don’t add up for most clubs.

Things are as sustainable as they can be at the Stadium of Light in their current context, and if the Black Cats are promoted this term, the club’s value will surge to north of £200m practically overnight.

And it seems like Louis-Dreyfus and Sartori are eyeing further deals in the coming months and years.

• READ MORE: Wilson Isidor’s eight-word statement will excite Sunderland fans ahead of upcoming clash vs Bristol City

Sunderland owners make two new hires, eye new takeovers

As of their last set of accounts, Sunderland’s parent company is Mercator Investments Limited, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

However, a new company has been set up by Louis-Dreyfus and Sartori which names Sunderland in its portfolio.

Bia Sports Group lists Louis-Dreyfus as a director on Companies House and is registered at Black Cat House, a building owned by Sunderland a stone’s throw from the Stadium of Light.

The company was only incorporated on 31 March, although activity on LinkedIn suggests it has been up and running in some capacity since July 2024.

Bia Sports CEO Tom Burwell recently revealed on the business networking site that Mike Papadimitriou and Scott McCubbin have joined as chief financial & operating officer and chief commercial officer respectively.

Papadimitriou spent almost 10 years as CFO for Formula E, while McCubbin has held various commercial roles with West Ham, the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, and Premiership Rugby.

Also on LinkedIn, Burwell said to expect “further acquisitions completing in Q1/2 of 2025.”

Bia Sports also own World Supercross Championship and their website says their focused on “investment opportunities in emerging and established sports.”

“Targeting opportunities,” the description continues, “where it creates exponential growth through leveraging their purpose-built platform to drive accelerated business outcomes, synergy realisation and the development of new and exciting fan experiences.

“Established by successful investors and entrepreneurs Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Juan Sartori, with an industry-leading management team, Bia Sports is primed to deliver the next generation of sporting experiences.”

• READ MORE: Sheffield United target £15m Sunderland star that Chris Wilder is a fan of, but there is a catch

Multi-club model next for Sunderland?

The multi-club model is in vogue at present. Think: the Red Bull network, Manchester City’s City Football Group.

Over half the teams in the Premier League fall under some kind of multi-club umbrella, while a growing contingent of Championship club owners operate in the multi-club space too.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus himself was said to have retained a five per cent stake in Marseille, who his later father owned outright until he passed away in 2009.

Juan Sartori meanwhile is vice-president of AS Monaco, who are owned by his father-in-law Dmitry Rybolovlev.

Neither of those connections would necessarily constitute a multi-club network but they are indicative of how tight the network of club owners and executives is at the elite level.

Recently, Louis-Dreyfus was linked with a takeover of historic Brazilian side Vasco de Gama, who are for sale following the collapse of their now-former owners 777 Partners, another multi-club empire.

Could Bia Sports be the next step?