Everton stadium investment hampered amid ‘real’ Farhad Moshiri ‘concern and fears’ in finance markets – Matt Slater
The search for Everton investment to complete the stadium build have been held back by genuine “fears” within the financial markets over Farhad Moshiri, according to Matt Slater.
The Guardian reported on 31 May that the Toffees majority shareholder was a “person of interest” for the Treasury’s sanctions police over his ties to Alisher Usmanov, who has been barred from the UK by the government, while Moshiri has also had his UK bank account closed.
Everton ended their sponsorship arrangements with Usmanov on 2 March last season in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, partly contributing to the need to source new investment in the months since.
According to Athletic journalist Slater, Moshiri’s representatives completely deny there is an issue with regards to any sort of sanctions against the club’s owner, nor is there anything untoward regarding links to Usmanov.
However, Slater says that whether there is any basis to the questions or not, the perception that there even might be has caused difficulty in the search for investment, and by extension therefore for the club.
He said on The Results Business podcast (6 June, 7m 35s): “I have, as I talk to you now, no way of knowing what the truth is. What I can tell you is that Moshiri’s camp are 100% adamant, repeatedly so, every time you ask about it, ‘there’s nothing to see here, nothing to see here whatsoever’.
“What I will say, concern and fears about that are real in the market.”
Headache
It is important to note that Moshiri hasn’t even been charged with anything, let alone proven to have broken any rules.
But it seems that hasn’t mattered as he has sought to get the stadium project funded to completion, as just the possibility that he could at some point in the future is enough to give banks and the like cold feet.
If the fears are ultimately based on nothing of substance then that is an incredibly frustrating situation for the Everton owner to be in when he has a major construction project ongoing.
With the injection of somewhere between £100million and £150million in loans via MSP Sports Capital widely reported to be on the way, or according to Slater’s report in The Athletic on Monday (5 June) already starting to flow into the club, it seems the dock-side stadium is now set to be covered.
The hope will of course be that the foreseeable future is secure and any ongoing difficulties don’t throw further spanners into the works.
But it goes to show that, unfounded or not, an unhelpful outside perception of the owner may have been a hinderance to his plans for the club.