SUNDERLAND have issued a statement and denied any wrongdoing after they were fined for for fielding an ineligible player this season.

The Black Cats were fined for playing Ji Dong-won on five occasions this campaign despite not having international clearance.

The club are confident they will not face any further punishment over the incident and they released the following statement this afternoon: “The issue of Ji Dong-won was explained in detail at today’s Premier League shareholders' meeting and no issues were raised by any club.

“Sunderland AFC confirmed that they had complied with all procedures and the Premier League stated that the player was duly registered on the extranet system and in all other Premier League mechanisms“The club has never accepted any wrongdoing, but did acknowledge that a technical fault occurred and as such were fined by the Premier League accordingly in December.

“The matter is now closed.”