Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn hopes Ellis Short will increase his stake in the club to above 50 per cent.
American businessman Short currently has a 30 per cent holding in Sunderland after taking over from the Ireland-based Drumaville consortium last year.
Quinn has previously thanked Short for his support but he is now waiting to see if the billionaire will invest even more heavily.
It seems unlikely that Short would give Sunderland his backing if the club was to drop out of the Premier League, and Quinn admits it is an anxious time.
He said in the Daily Express: "Ellis has a decision to make soon about going over the 50 per cent mark in shares.
"The writing was on the wall for Drumaville as the Irish economy is in pieces. They asked me to go and find somebody, and I had known Ellis. He felt it wasn't your average type of investment.
"This summer, if he says, 'Okay, I've had enough', the Drumaville guys are still involved. But the time is getting close to where he is enjoying what is going on behind the scenes.
"We now have a squad which is worth £90million, when three years ago it was worth £9million. And it is crucial that Ellis Short is here for us as a custodian of the club.
"At the same time I am not bringing in a guy who has got a big stick, and is demanding I want X amount of millions in return.
"He didn't want to jump straight in. The way I sold it to him initially was that if he is getting a return in five years' time everyone will be happy because it means we have gone somewhere."
Meanwhile, Quinn has conceded that Ricky Sbragia's future as manager remains unclear.
Sbragia was appointed as Roy Keane's successor after enjoying success during a brief stint as caretaker boss.
He has an 18-month deal but Quinn insists he has to keep proving himself.
"I think every manager in the country has to do that," Quinn said.
"Ricky was a halfway house option which may end up being a great decision and he may kick on. That was a tough decision, but I was convinced at the time it was the right one and time will tell whether it was or not.
"If we stay up on goal difference in the 93rd minute, it might not be so simple. He's got 12 months left in the summer, and we did that because we wanted to take some of the pressure off Ricky as well.
Quinn added: "There is another decision to be made on Ricky, but he has a year to fall back on and he'll be well rewarded for keeping us up. I would love to give Ricky a big long deal because he has shown everything. Let's see how it all plays out."
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