Kieran Maguire reacts to fear that 777 Partners plan to force Premier League on Everton takeover with £100m-plus debt
Kieran Maguire doesn’t believe 777 Partners will be able to force the Premier League to let them takeover at Everton on the basis of their extensive lending to the club already.
Speaking on The Price of Football (14 December) the University of Liverpool football finance expert played down fears from host Kevin Day that the Americans were trying to land the club at a reduced price by saddling it with debt that can’t repaid, after supplying more than £100million in loans for monthly running costs.
Having apparently used a similar method to acquire Melbourne Victory in Australia Maguire pointed to the fact that the Premier League’s ability to “veto” any takeover as the key difference between the English top flight and the A League, and while the company has “leverage” over Everton he wouldn’t expect it to extend to the league authorities.
Day said (14m): “Where I worry Kieran on behalf of Everton fans is what you’ve told me in the past about how 777 operate. We saw that in Melbourne.
“They lend an awful lot of money to someone in a short period of time and when the money can’t be repaid they use that as an excuse to take club essentially as collateral, and an excuse to buy the club at a much-reduced price.
“It seems to me there’s every indication that’s what’s happening here.”
Maguire replied: “The difference between ourselves and the A League in Australia is that the Premier League can veto the deal, so that’s where my concern is.
“Yes they have leverage over the club at present, but is this a way of trying to force the Premier League’s hand? I don’t think that would work.
“The Premier League does lots of things right and lots of things wrong but I don’t think it would let itself be forced into endorsing a takeover simply because of the existing financial investment of the lender.”
No dice
In theory it looks like the backdoor route is closed to 777 in this instance, but that is to put faith in the efficacy of the Premier League’s regulations doing their job.
And in light of how Premier League regulations seemed to be a pretty moveable feast when it came to cracking down on spending at Goodison Park that is perhaps easier said than done.
The fact is that, one way or another, the Toffees need new owners because Farhad Moshiri is clearly at the end of his time pouring cash into the club.
It is therefore tempting to hope the 777 deal gets done just to provide answers for the future, at least in the short term, but it remains important that Everton aren’t put in a worse position than they are already in.
There are said to be various other interested buyers lurking in the shadows in the hope that this takeover bid fails, but none have yet come forward to provide a tangible alternative.
If 777 don’t get the green light it is apparently going to be touch-and-go as to who funds the club day to day, so even assuming there is another prospective owner prepared to step up then it would be a concerning development.
But it should still be a good thing that if 777 are going to complete a takeover they are, in theory, required to do so on merit rather than manipulating the system through debt.
In other Everton news, a Sky Sports pundit has told Gary Lineker he believes the Toffees have a genuine superstar in their ranks.