By George Overhill
There appears to have been no progress between Everton and alternatives to 777 Partners in securing investment and the American company looks to still be the “favourites”, according to Paul Brown.
The former Daily Star journalist told GIVEMESPORT (4 September) that the Miami-based enterprise seem “very confident” about securing a buy-in to the Toffees despite “concerns” having been raised over their involvement in British basketball and “questions” in government circles.
Farhad Moshiri is seeking an alternative after the long-awaited deal with MSP Sports Capital collapsed last month after they had beaten 777 to secure an exclusivity period with the Everton majority shareholder.
Brown said: “The word is still that 777 Partners are favourites to buy a minority stake in the club. Other than that, there doesn’t seem to have been any progress made with any other groups on a sale or an investment coming into the club.
“777 seem very confident that they will be able to buy in, so we’ll have to watch what happens there. I think many people would have concerns if that group was to buy into the club.
“I know that concerns have been raised about them in the basketball world because they own both the London Lions and part of the league itself.
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“I believe that has caused some issues and that there are questions inside UK sport and government circles and about this group’s suitability to be an investor in sports in this country.
“So, there could be some difficulties there. We will see.”
Right move?
Where Everton go from here is crucial and if concerns have been raised over 777 Partners in other sporting circles it will likely raise similar concerns among the Toffees fanbase.
Confidence in getting a deal done isn’t the same thing as actually doing so, and there was plenty of reported confidence around MSP Sports Capital for months until the move was suddenly off amid a 23 August bombshell from The Athletic.
One way or another Everton managed to secure a £25million deal to sign Beto before the transfer window closed, but in terms of the club rather than the stadium it is clear from further deadline day exits that most of the cash is continuing to come from player sales.
Alan Myers has reported rival offers on the table from the US and Asia so there do look to be competitors to the 777 interest, but until there is a concrete breakthrough with anyone the negotiations in the background mean little.
For months the MSP Sports Capital agreement was thought to be in the process of loose ends being tied up until it finally emerged that it wasn’t going ahead.
So absent official news it could be that plenty is happening or nothing at all, but until the financial answers are finally found it seems like supporters are going to have to deal with worries about the future of the club amid semi-regular dire predictions in the media.
In other Everton news, the club have been hit by a new damning indictment as contract news has confirmed another snub.