Everton takeover: John Textor gets backing from 'ridiculously wealthy' firm as finance expert reacts

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has given his reaction to the latest Everton takeover news.

Last week, prospective owner John Textor gave a wide-ranging interview to Sky Sports after being handed exclusivity from majority owner Farhad Moshiri. Textor currently owns a 45 per cent stake in Crystal Palace and will have to sell his shares because of Premier League rules.

Textor insisted he was hopeful of a deal being completed by 30 November, although Everton distanced themselves from that claim. In a statement interim CEO Colin Chong insisted that Textor’s comments ‘merely represent his personal view on club matters’ and there ‘remains some work to be done to complete the transaction’.

Textor already owns French side Lyon, Brazilian club Botafogo and Belgium club Molenbeek through his multi-club group Eagle Football Holdings yet intends to set up a new holding company called Everton Football Group funded by himself and some ‘friends with terrific resources. Subsequently, it emerged that Textor secured the backing from US investment firm Aliya Capital Partners.

But earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that the Friedkin Group, who opted out of a deal in July after being given exclusivity, have rekindled interest. The Friedkin Group came to the fore after Moshiri pulled the plug on 777 Partners’ prospective takeover. Miami-based firm 777 - who provided Everton with £200 million of loans - have been accused of fraud, with a $600 million case filed against them in New York by Leadenhall Capital Partners.

Maguire, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool, has discussed the latest events on his podcast The Price of Football. He said: “He is talking as if there’s just one minor issue. He does own 45 per cent of Crystal Palace and is talking as if those shares have been sold, although my understanding is, I would imagine Steve Paris, Josh Harris and David Blitzer will have first refusal of Textor’s existing shares. If not, he would be in a position to sell to a third party but that has not happened. If there is a third party, that would have to  go through the Premier League owners’ and directors’ test, which they are very cautious and understandably so.

There’s that on the sell side and then on the buy side in relation to Everton, Textor is saying he is going to do two things; first of all, he’s going list Eagle Football Holdings - his control company on the New York Stock Exchange and that will have Botafogo, Lyon, Molenbeek and at present, Palace. He’s saying he will make these shares available to people who want to invest and the advantage of the multi-club model is that if one clubs gets relegated, you’ve got three that won’t. It reduces risk and investors don’t like risk.

“But Everton aren’t going to that list. Surely Everton are going to replace Palace but he’s saying no. It turns out by all accounts, he sounded out investors and they’re a bit worried about Everton. There are £600 million of existing loans and there’s the shadow of 777 in the background and could that be deemed a proceeds of crime and criminal case with repercussions for whoever owns Everton?

“He’s now saying, in which case, I’m going to buy Everton myself. He’s been talking to business partners, one of which is called Aliya Capital, who are ridiculously wealthy. They are seriously wealthy but why would they be interested? It turns out he’s met someone from Aliya Capital when in Brazil and perhaps is he thinking there is a relationship. It’s one step forward and one step back with regards to Textor. He’s now the fifth person to entire a period of exclusivity with Moshiri who, in my view, is seriously letting down the fan base. 

“Throwing his hat back into the ring, and we said at the time, is the Friedkin Group. They did exactly the same at Roma and it now appears they are interested but if John Textor has the period of exclusivity, when can Friedkin potentially start to get involved again or could Textor say I’m not going to go for Everton and try to buy himself out of his exclusivity period.”