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US businessman Dan Friedkin has agreed to buy English Premier League team Everton from current owner Farhad Moshiri, potentially ending years of uncertainty at one of football’s oldest clubs.
The Friedkin Group, which also owns Italian football club AS Roma, and Everton said on Monday that it had reached an agreement to buy Moshiri’s majority stake in the Liverpool-based football club, subject to regulatory approval.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement to become custodians of this iconic football club,” said the group. “We look forward to providing stability to the club, and sharing our vision for its future.”
Friedkin, who has a net worth of around $6bn according to Forbes, had been in negotiations to buy Everton earlier in the year, but those talks collapsed in July.
The Friedkin Group, which made its fortune selling Toyota cars across the south of the US, instead became a lender to Everton’s new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium project.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Everton has been searching for a buyer for more than two years, and has appeared close to a deal on several previous occasions.
For the past few seasons, the club’s stretched finances have forced a wave of player sales and left the team near the bottom of the Premier League table for the past few seasons.
Moshiri had agreed to sell the club to US investment firm 777 Partners in September last year. As part of the agreement, 777 funded the running costs of the club for several months with loans of roughly £200mn.
However, that deal unravelled in June soon after the Miami-based firm called in restructuring experts to help it overcome what it called “operational challenges”.
777, which bought or invested in a network of football clubs across the world, is now embroiled in a legal battle with one of its lenders.
Everton has also been the subject of recent takeover interest from US entrepreneur John Textor, whose company Eagle Football owns French club Olympique Lyonnais.
Textor is in the process of selling his stake in Premier League side Crystal Palace in preparation for buying another English club.
As a creditor to Everton with £200mn of stadium funding, Friedkin had stayed in the negotiations.
The eventual deal was made possible due to an agreement between Friedkin and US insurance group A-cap, a creditor to 777, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
That debt would be repaid in cash and redeemable preference shares, they said. A-cap was contacted for comment. Friedkin and Moshiri declined to comment.
Subject to approval from the Premier League and the Financial Conduct Authority, the deal would end one of the most drawn out takeover sagas in football.
It would also give Friedkin control of another major European club, following the €591mn acquisition of Roma in 2020. Under the Friedkin Group, Roma won the Europa Conference League with former manager José Mourinho, who was sacked in January.
As Dan Friedkin closes in on Everton, Roma has suffered a tough start to the season with only one win in five league matches.
Last week, Roma parted ways with Mourinho’s successor, club legend Daniele De Rossi, sparking uproar among the club’s fans. Roma CEO Lina Souloukou stepped down on Sunday.
Moshiri has injected hundreds of millions of pounds into Everton since buying into the club in 2016. He is set to write off a significant portion of those shareholder loans to get the deal done with Friedkin, according to a person close to the matter.
Despite Moshiri’s funding, Everton failed to build a team capable of challenging for honours and instead slipped into relegation battles, but continued to build a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.
The coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerated the search for external funds and, eventually a buyer for Everton.
The lockdowns hit the club’s revenues as fans were barred from stadiums.
Following the start of the Ukraine conflict, Moshiri was forced to cut ties with long-standing business partner Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek-born tycoon. Everton had previously cut lucrative sponsorship deals with companies connected to Usmanov.
Additional reporting by Oliver Ralph in London
