Sunderland's accounts show a £20.5million hole that is causing buyers to walk away, Sportsmail can reveal.
We revealed last year that majority shareholder Stewart Donald used Sunderland's parachute payments to finance the majority of the £37m purchase of the League One club in 2018.
However, a fresh investigation has found that £20.538m of the money he borrowed has now been written off.
We can disclose that Donald and fellow shareholders Juan Sartori and Charlie Methven have, by way of an 'exceptional operating expense' in draft accounts for 2018-19, removed the legal obligation to pay back that money.