777 Partners have new problem amid Everton takeover as Standard Liege receive transfer ban
It may have been months since it was announced that Farhad Moshiri had agreed a takeover with 777 Partners over Everton, but little progress seems to have been made with the deal in recent weeks.
While the Toffees have turned their fortunes on around the field, climbing away from the Premier League relegation zone thanks to some exceptional form under the management of Sean Dyche, their future behind the scenes remains murky.
777 Partners are awaiting approval from the Premier League the FA and the financial conduct authority as they conduct their due diligence into where and how the American firm has sourced their funding, but a new speed bump may have been put in the process.
According to The Esk (21 December), the Belgian FA has imposed a transfer ban on Standard Liege, a Belgian club also owned by 777 Partners, after they failed to fulfil its salary obligations as well as debt obligations.
Standard have failed to provide proof of payments surrounding several debts, including the payments for the transfer of both Aron Donnum and Ilyes Ziani as well as a missed payment to the ONSS, the Belgian Department of Social Security.
As a result of these failings, 777’s Belgian club will be unable to buy any players throughout the January transfer window, a decision that is expected to greatly impact the remainder of the Belgian giant’s season.
This is the second club under the 777 umbrella to fall under a transfer ban this season, with Brazilian side Vasco de Gama suffering a similar fate earlier in the campaign for incredibly similar breaches.
While on paper, each and every club under the Miami-based firm’s ownership is run as a separate being, this inability to pay off existing debt must surely impact the Premier League’s thinking when deciding on the takeover of Everton.
If 777 have been unable to pay their debts at the clubs they already own, surely adding another team into that mix would only see resources spread even more thinly. There is little in the American companies’ previous work to suggest they are fit and capable of supporting the Toffees.
Hopefully, for the sake of Everton and their supporters, Standard’s struggles can at least ensure Everton avoid the ownership of 777 Partners. Moshiri may not be perfect, but even he seems better than the alternative.
In other Everton news, 777 Partners have dramatically cut ties with one of their UK-based partners in more bad news for the Toffees