Come 6pm on Sunday, Everton will know their Premier League fate.
What happens this coming weekend will also be impactful as to what direction the football club takes off the field in the coming years, with Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri reportedly having reached non-binding agreements, with caveats attached, with two American investment firms; 777 Partners and MSP Sports Capital. Sky Sports reported on Monday that the latter have now entered into an exclusivity agreement with Moshiri in order to progress talks and conduct due diligence on an investment deal.
The details of any deal are unclear at this point, although the most obvious caveat to any deal progressing relates to whether or not Everton will be participating in the world’s most lucrative domestic football league next season, or whether they will suffer the dreaded drop into the Championship where revenues, even with parachute payments, fall off something of a financial cliff edge.
READ MORE: Alan Shearer shuts down Gary Lineker relegation 'conspiracy theory' after Everton draw
READ MORE: James Tarkowski sends Dominic Calvert-Lewin message to Everton squad after new injury blow
While Miami-based 777, who have other footballing investments through ownership stakes in clubs such as Genoa, Standard Liege, Hertha Berlin, Vasco da Gama, Red Star, Melbourne Victory and Sevilla, have looked to have been gaining some ground in recent weeks, New York-based MSP are understood to have been in the box seat for some time.
Back in January, MSP co-founders Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moorad, along with company vice-president Peter Taylor, were in attendance at Goodison Park as the Toffees, then under the stewardship of former boss Frank Lampard, were beaten at home by Southampton, a club that already knows its fate for next season after finishing rock bottom.
MSP is a firm that has sporting investments in the McLaren Formula One racing team and the X Games, while they have indirect investments into European football clubs such as AD Alcorcon, Estoril Praia, Brondby and FC Augsburg.
But a move to take a slice, or potentially all, of Moshiri’s shareholding would represent the first direct ownership stake of the company in a football team.
Everton’s financial turmoil has been well documented, the club having lost more than £370m combined over three years, well above the permitted £105m, with the club having been landed with charges of breaches of financial fair play by the Premier League, something which the club refute and will deliver a defence against when they appear before an independent commission at an as yet unspecified date.
The threat of relegation, allied with a new stadium that is more than 60 per cent build on the banks of the River Mersey but in need of the financial tranche of funding, and a business that has been repeatedly losing money has created plenty of questions around why it would make a sound investment moving forward.
Moorad, a former sports agent who served as the inspiration behind the 1996 Tom Cruise movie ‘Jerry Maguire’, pulled back the curtain a little on MSP’s own approach to investing in sport.
“We began looking for investments in sports that were proprietary, that not everybody saw,” Moorad told the RUHM Podcast with Tim Smith in February.
“We didn’t participate in processes or auctions. We talked to investment bankers to get smarter and to learn, but we didn’t do it to participate in their auction processes.
“The network, both Jahm’s and mine, are what brings opportunities to us. Last year (2022) we looked at 203 deals in sports. All shapes and sizes, some domestic but most out of the country, and we beat up all of them.
“We looked at them and of that list about 20 were actually interesting and we drilled down on 10 of those and ended up making a couple of investments.
“(On the McLaren investment) Jahm and I did a good amount of diligence on the business and concluded that it was not unlike a lot of sports teams that we had seen where they were losing money and struggling financially, in this case the business was losing £65m at that stage,” said Moorad.
“We said that we felt there was a path to profitability here. We got involved, we closed the deal in December of that year (2020). Now, two years later, the business is really profitable.
“The fact is that we found a business that we believed in, we loved the brand, it was one that is going to celebrate 60 years as a business next year.”
Moorad was asked about MSP’s approach to their investments and how they went about delivering.
The 68 year old has previous team ownership experience in America having previously held significant stakes with both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball teams, while Najafi is a co-owner of the Phoenix Suns NBA team, retaining his part ownership earlier this year after the team was sold to billionaire Matt Ishbia for $4bn.
“It’s about hiring the right people and letting them do their job,” explained Moorad.
“I think it was Tom Garfinkel from back in my Arizona (Diamondbacks) days who used to say that you needed to hire best in class talent, give them enough autonomy to do their jobs, hold them accountable to a bottom line but let them fail and succeed. That is really the approach that Jahm and I have as we oversee these businesses and support the management teams that do great work.
“It’s about assessing the dynamic, doing the right amount of background research, it’s about understanding the dynamic you’re dealing with and understanding the climate.
“It’s where the person came from, how they think and what their history is. It is also understanding what your leverage is, and lack thereof. I’ve always believed that you can’t lie or BS your way to the result you want, you have to be straight to get the result you want.”
Moorad and Najafi will have plenty riding on what happens on Merseyside on Sunday afternoon.
READ NEXT:
Sam Allardyce makes blunt Leeds admission in Everton relegation fight and confirms injury blow
Roy Keane delivers dismal verdict on Everton's relegation rivals Leeds United
Everton Premier League relegation route clear after Leeds beaten by West Ham
National media deliver Everton relegation verdict after 'hit and hope approach' questioned
Jordan Pickford fumes at referee over Wolves tactic as late Everton goal sparks VIP section chaos
