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£375bn Qatari group and eight more options: Ranking every Everton takeover contender
Everton are up for sale once more after an exclusivity agreement between 777 Partners and Farhad Moshiri expired last week.
The club agreed a deal with Miami-based investment group 777 over a year ago, but the Premier League refused to ratify the takeover due to concerns about their ability to fund the club goin﷽g forward.
Now, a number of other suitors have reportedly emerged as prospec꧃tive new owners, some perhaps more credible than others.
Here, we take a look at the nine contend🍃ers to buy the historic bu♋t financially vulnerable Merseyside club.
9. 777 Partners
The nightmare scenario – although one that i𒅌s a near impossibilit🍌y.
The 777 group’s football division is on the verge of collapse amid a litany 🥂of financial and legal issues.
They clearly do not have the funds to run Everton and the bombastic approach of 777’s management is not what Everton, a club who are crying out for stability, need.
It would be out of the frying pan and into the fire for Everton. Bꦬut failing a miraculous resurrection group, it won’t happen.
8. A-Cap
It has 🐻been reported that A-Cap, one of 777 Partners’ major lenders, want to take a minority stake in the Toffees.
The insurance investors have their own legal♊ issues at the momen♊t and their relationship with 777 will surely have Everton fans running scared.
The group are also believed to be exposed to liaඣbilities of around £2bn because of the𒅌ir association with 777.
With Everton already in debt to Rights & Media Funding (£225m), MSP Sports Capital (£158m) and Metro Bank (£10m), supporters will surely not want the club to get into bed with this gro🦩up.
7. John Textor
According to reports, this one seems like a rem💟🅺ote possibility.
John Textor is co-owner of Crystal Palace as wel🦄l as a number of other ♏clubs across multiple continents.
However, his involvement with Palace as well as his apparent doubts about Moshiri‘s negot๊iations style mean that a Textor takeover seems very unlikely now.
Textor also has something of an🎐 erratic ownership a💜pproach.
He has invoked anger at one of his♐ clubs RWD Molenbeek for failing to meet with fa🍨ns following their relegation from the Dutch top flight.
The American billionaire has also mওade controversial remarks about match-fixing in Brazil, where 🦂he is the owner of historic side Botafogo.
6. Qatari group
A Qatari takeover is lower down this list based purely on it’s relative improbability꧒.
r🧸eported earlier this year that the Qatar𒁃 Investment Authority, who control assets of £375bn, had been contacted about the possibility of a deal.
But the sovereign wealth fund, who failed in a🍸 bit to buy Man United last year, have not been linked any further.
It seems highly unlikely that, if they were interested, news of their pursuit of the club woul🔯d have been k🔜ept under wraps for this long.
In any case, state ownership of Premier League clubs is increasingly under the microscope, as are associate party transactions, which have been one of the main benefits 🌸of this model historically.
5. Dan Friedkin
AS Roma owner Dan Friedkin is reportedly interersted in acquiring a maj🃏ority stake in Everton✤.
He ha💟s been criticised by Jose Mourinho, who won the Europa Conference League for him at Roma, as knowing “nothing about football.”
Also, UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership would mean that, if he 💞was😼 to buy Everton, the two clubs would not be able to play in European competition simultaneously.
That doesn’t appear as though itꦜ would be an immediate concern for Everton, whose recent aim in the Premier League has been to stay in the division.
However, Everton fans hoping for an ambitious new oener would likely be sceptical about their♌ ceiling under Freidkin
He is a credible investor, however, and controls assets of £5bn, so there are worse options ඣout there.
4. Vatche Manoukian
The bid fronted by Vatche Manoukian has a𒀰ttracted headlines of involving a ‘Saudi royal’
And while that is true, there aꦗre over 1ꦬ5,000 members of the Saudi royal family, so it’s not as exclusive a club as you might imagine
Still, the group led by Manoukian, a London-based entrepeneur is a genuine option having made a £400m bid for Ever𝔉ton which would be all equity and no debt.
That makes them s🐻tand out in a field in which bidders are proposing to lend the club mone🌠y in addition to taking a stake.
As well as Saudi iꦉnvolvement, the Manoukian group also includes financiers from the United States.
3. MSP Sports Capital
MSP Sports Capit🥂al have been inte🐻rersted in an Everton takeover for more than a year.
They have an option to take a controlling stake in the club as part of a previous financing arrangement, so the pathway tꩵo a takeover is perhaps clearer than some of the other options.
They have a wealth of football experience given that they, like Textor and 777, have stakes in a number of clubs ac💯ross the globe.
But their modus operandi has 🌞typically been to be more of a silent partner in those clubs, so it would be a gear change for them to fully take the wheel at a club with the stature of Everton.
They could, therefore, act as interim owners while another inves🐠to🍃r arranges the funds to buy the club outright.
MSP want to protect their investment i🅷n terms of their existing loan to thౠe club, which would mean this is a viable solution.
- READ MORE FOOTBALL FINANCE ANALYSIS: Everton dodge bullet as £36.5m off-pitch investment collapses, deal 💫now officially dead
2. Michael Dell
Strictly speaking, Mich♋ael Dell, the tenth richest man in the w♉orld, is not looking to buy Everton.
He is, however, lending funds to local busi♌nessan Andy Bell and George Downing as part ofඣ their takeover bid. More on that soon.
The extent of his involvement with their takeover campaign isn’t clear, nor is how much he would contribute 🍌financially to the club if their campaign🐭 was to be successful.
But if♚ the computer industry multi-billionaire co🌠uld be tempted to throw his weight behind Everton as an individual investor, it would be an appealing route for the club.
1. Bell-Downing consortium
This appears to be the most popular𒀰 option with Everton fans, and it’s easy to see w꧅hy.
B💯ell and Down💯ing are Evertonians and hugely successful businessmen in their own rights.
Couple with Dell’s backing, supporters see them as reliable custodians of🌱 the club who understand its culture and heritage.
This would be a takeover based on much more than sentiment thou🙈gh.
Witꦜh MSP Sports Capital, they too have ꦇan investment in the club in the form of a loan, which they would want to protect.
Their offer to refinance t♐he club’s debt is also a𒊎ppealing.