When Farhad Moshiri bought a 49.9% stake in Everton FC early last year there was an understandable degree of excitement amongst the fans. Compared with Bill Kenwright, who everyone in football whose opinion matters thinks has done a fantastic job as chairman and major shareholder of the club for 12 years, Moshiri is rich. But, give or take, Moshiri is worth a billion quid. Big bucks but, when the new stadium Everton need could easily cost a third to a half a billion, then the limitations of his big bazooka become apparent. So I was pleased the club's stability would be maintained, but not too carried away.
I think many of the fans are unrealistically impatient when this sort of change happens. They understand that new players can only be obtained during transfer windows but I don't think they get how much planning and work is necessary to move that type of business forward. But, at Everton's AGM this week, Moshiri and the board made some important announcements.
They weren't able to say anything concrete about the new stadium, though confirming that a waterfront site is under consideration. And it's clear that the city mayor is now fully engaged, at last. Public funding can't help with the ground itself (bar a Man City/West Ham style windfall from a major sporting event) but they are looking at transport links and, I would hope, enabling works, for perhaps the last large area of Liverpool which has not had any redevelopment, the northern docks area, one of the few locations left in the city where a big stadium could be built.
But one piece of news is tantalising: Alisher Usmanov's USM Holdings has sponsored Everton's training ground. Together with a (separate) new shirt sponsorship deal the two commercial deals announced at Everton's AGM are worth £75M.
This certainly made me sit up. Moshiri is rich, but not in the league of Abramovich or Manchester City's Arabian backers. But Usmanov is Russia's richest man, worth around $15 billion and the world's 58th richest man. He could buy out Abramovich with $6 billion to spare. But, wait a minute, isn't he the main man in Red and White Holdings, which owns over 30% of Arsenal? Indeed he is, and he's an old buddy of Moshiri, who was a partner in Red and White Holdings until he sold out, as he had to under F.A. rules to buy into Everton.
Now there's nothing (I know of) in the rules that says Usmanov's company can't sponsor another club. But this clearly isn't some random act of corporate sponsorship. USM Holdings doesn't need publicity and, if it did, this would be an odd way of trying to achieve it. Moshiri clearly got frustrated at Arsenal. In 2009 when Red and White Holdings owned about 25% of Arsenal - and were the largest shareholder group - it seemed that the Arsenal board contrived to prevent the Usmanov-Moshiri-David Dein group taking over control of the club, with a "lock-down agreement" on who shares could be sold to until two other major shareholders, Danny Fiszman and Lady Nina-Bracewell Smith, were persuaded to sell out to the American, Stan Kroenke, which led to him acquiring 62% of the club. Despite owning over 30% of the club, Usmanov has never had a seat on Arsenal's board, or had any real control or influence over the club.
In contrast Moshiri has been welcomed at Everton. Although he isn't on the board, his close colleague Alexander Ryazantsev, Moshiri's "finance man", is. And at Everton's AGM, normally so fractious that the club found a way of not holding one for 5 years from 2008, Moshiri got two spontaneous rounds of applause following comments he made.
This plot might be thickening. It suited both Bill Kenwright and Moshiri to take things steadily and get to know each other. But we'll just have to wait and see if Moshiri was the advance party to look at things from the inside and his old buddy is keeping his options open about following him from Arsenal if they continue to treat him like a pariah.
Money is no guarantee of success but Everton's need for capital to resolve the stadium issue is acute. Goodison Park is arguably the country's most historically significant sporting venue. It was England's first specifically designed football stadium and its list of firsts (first club ground to host an FA Cup final - in 1894, first visit by a reigning monarch in 1913, first dugouts in 1931, first to have seating on all four sides as part of the first all round double decker stands - in 1938, the first to have undersoil heating - 1958 and the only British club ground to have hosted a World Cup semi-final in 1966. Etc etc). It should probably be a listed building, though thankfully for the club it isn't, if not an ancient monument. I will be very sad if and when Everton leave to go to their third home (the first, of course, was Anfield). But for the club ever to compete at the very top again it is essential.
And maybe now possible. As Moshiri pointed out, of the current top 6 only 3 clubs - Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool - are historically big clubs. Chelsea and Man City have bankrolled their way there in recent times and Tottenham - who despite a significant history have rarely actually won anything - are flirting with the top group through having some key players like Harry Kane come through and benefiting from London ticket prices. Of the rest, West Ham could benefit from their nearly free stadium and make a challenge. And Everton, who had won the league as many times as any other club in history when I was a student (Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd all had 7 wins as of 1970) is the classic sleeping giant.
The financial fair play rules, brought in by Platini's UEFA and designed to ensure that the richest clubs like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid can never be challenged (golly how Leicester must have terrified this particular elite) do not prevent capital investment in a stadium. Everton had seemed to be in a catch 22 situation, desperate for investment but why would anyone buy a club that needed so much spending on infrastructure? Maybe Bill Kenwright has found a way. Alisher Usmanov's dosh would make our new home and everything else possible.
A spokesman for Usmanov has denied that he has any plan to sell his Arsenal shares. But even if he's just hedging his bets by supplementing Moshiri's financial power, then that's helpful.
Nil Satis but Fontes Spem Aeternae - hope springs eternal.
http://www.espnfc.co.uk/club/arsenal/359/blog/post/2844866/alisher-usmanov-biding-his-time-at-arsenal
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