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The billionaire Friedkin family’s deal to buy Everton Football Club has collapsed, the latest twist in a saga that leaves the future of one of England’s oldest football clubs clouded in uncertainty.
The Friedkin Group, which also owns Italian club Roma, entered exclusive takeover talks with Everton owner Farhad Moshiri last month. On Friday, Everton and the Friedkin Group announced jointly that the talks had ended without an agreement.
“The Friedkin Group will not be progressing with a purchase of the club”, they said in a statement. “The parties agree it is in both their interests for Everton to explore alternative options.”
Dan Friedkin, whose family made its fortune selling Toyota cars across the southern US states, has an estimated net worth of $6bn, according to Forbes. His potential arrival had been heralded by Everton fans as a chance to put the club back on an even keel.
Instead, the collapse of the takeover throws the top-tier team back into turmoil. The heavily indebted club was docked Premier League points last season for breaching spending rules, and has battled to avoid relegation for the past three years.
An earlier period of spending big on players came back to bite the club when the pandemic battered football finances. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also forced the cancellation of several large sponsorship deals with companies linked to oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
Everton has yet to complete construction of its new stadium in Liverpool’s Bramley-Moore Dock. Building costs for the project have soared in recent years, further weighing on the club’s finances.
In Friday’s joint statement, the two parties said that the Friedkin Group would stay on as a lender to the club, and had “played a key role in enabling the new stadium to be built”.
Moshiri has been searching for a buyer for the club for more than two years. The British-Iranian businessman originally agreed to sell the club to Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners in September last year, but that deal unravelled last month.
The firm, which had faced months of scrutiny over its finances, lent money to the club throughout the process to pay for running costs, but failed to receive approval to buy it from the Premier League. Its takeover deal fell apart soon after 777 called in restructuring experts to help tackle what it called “operational challenges”.
Some of the club’s main creditors have also been jostling for control.
