Everton takeover: John Textor has already revealed his wealth amid honest PSR verdict

John Textor, who has expressed his interest in buying Everton, has expressed his discontent towards the current Premier League profit and sustainability (PSR) rules in place.

Financial regulations have become a major talking point in the Premier League of late. The Toffees were hit with an eight-point deduction for two separate breaches in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, while Nottingham Forest were docked four points.

Meanwhile, Leicester City were charged for an alleged breach in 2022-23 and reportedly could start next term with a points deduction while Manchester City have been accused of breaking the rules seven times between 2015-16 and 2017-18.

What’s more, clubs are having to cut their cloth accordingly to meet the current regulations. Aston Villa and Newcastle United have both previously spoken about having to stick within the rules.

Clubs did unanimously vote in favour of a reform of the rules last month to be aligned with the squad cost-to-revenue ratio contained within UEFA's financial sustainability Regulations. Yet there is no guarantee the new model will be ratified at the Premier League’s AGM in June.

Textor currently owns 45% of Crystal Palace but has placed his stake on the market. And with 777 Partners’ takeover of Everton highly unlikely to happen, the American businessman has publicly declared he’d been keen to buy the Blues from Farhad Moshiri.

Textor was a speaker at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit in March. The 58-year-old insisted that current PSR rules were in place to ensure the clubs established at the top of the league keep their spot - and rued that Palace could not spend more money despite having three billionaires in himself, Josh Harris and David Blitzer in charge.

"It's clear that they're (PSR) built to make sure that clubs who do not drive significant revenues cannot catch up," said Textor, whose Eagle Football Holdings also owns 77% of French club Lyon.

"Financial fair play is a fraud of a term, to say it's about sustainability. Sustainability should be about the quality of your balance sheet, not ratios against your profit and loss.

"We have got three billionaires in our ownership group (at Palace). We're not allowed to spend at the level of teams that are in the top six.  Josh Harris has no trouble with money, he just bought an NFL team [the Washington Commanders], he owns the [Philadelphia] 76ers [basketball team]. But Steve [Parish, co-owner and chairman] is not allowed to go out and spend that kind of money, he gets docked points and sent to the second division.

“I’m just saying you cannot have a rule that says somebody who has the money is not allowed to spend it because their club isn’t big enough. Yet how do you get big ever?”