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Farhad Moshiri

7+ Years On... Your Verdict On Farhad Moshiri

  • Pleased

    Votes: 107 7.7%
  • Disappointed

    Votes: 1,290 92.3%

  • Total voters
    1,397
Bold bit I have to take issue with. We simply haven't spent "money" as in what you'd call invested money - we've spent less than the TV money thus far in transfers over two windows. In short, Moshiri hasn't done anything Kenwright couldn't have done yet, except get the USM deal for Finch Farm and be able to loan us some money.

So he's basically Vibrac without the interest at the moment, that's it.


The TV money is required to pay wages, commercial and match day revenues ain't going to cover our operational costs.

I don't even know where to begin here. What is "invested money"?

There's no way we'd have spent all the Stones money after making a financial loss, a chunk of that would have gone to the banks.

Basically Vibrac without the interest? If he wasn't here we wouldn't have sacked Martinez and even if somehow it did happen under Kenwright you could bet your last quid that Kenwright wouldn't be going out looking for a manager he can pay 6 million quid a year to. Lord knows who we would have ended up with in that situation but it wouldn't have been Koeman.
 
The curious case of Farhad Moshiri, Alisher Usmanov and new money at Everton
Alisher Usmanov, who has a stake in Arsenal, is said not to be involved at Everton, but the heavy investment by USM, of which the Uzbek-Russian billionaire owns 48%, in Finch Farm has raised questions



The Uzbek-Russian billionaire tycoon and part owner of Arsenal Alisher Usmanov, left, and his business partner Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s majority shareholder. Photograph: AP/Getty Images
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David Conn

Wednesday 25 January 2017 12.00 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 25 January 2017 12.03 GMT

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When Everton’s major shareholders concluded years of searching for a mega-rich owner by selling just under 50% of the club to Farhad Moshiri for £87.5m last February, it was widely assumed that Moshiri’s senior business partner, the Uzbek-Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, must be looming large behind him.

Usmanov, though, has a 30% stake in Arsenal, the club he harbours an appetite to buy, but where he has been held at bay and arm’s length by the US investor Stan Kroenke, who owns 67% and is buttressed by the alliances of the board. Premier League rules prohibiting “dual ownership,” aimed at maintaining proper competition, forbid a person who owns more than 10% of one club to buy shares in another.

So when Moshiri bought into Everton, who have long strained financially to compete in the Premier League and pined for a new stadium, his and Usmanov’s spokesman made it clear this was Moshiri’s venture alone, and that Usmanov, sticking with and “committed to” his stake in Arsenal, was not involved at all.

Yet the lurking question of Usmanov’s position was revived by the surprise announcement at Everton’s annual general meeting this month that USM, the investment company for his vast holdings in Russian mining and metals, and digital corporations, is pumping money into Everton by sponsoring the Finch Farm training ground. Everton did not reveal the value of this unusual sponsorship – of a training ground, which does not attract much media exposure or TV coverage to promote a sponsor’s name – but some sources suggested it is around £6m a year for five years.

Usmanov built up his massive holdings in former state-owned resources after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and still owns 48% of USM, the investment vehicle for Metalloinvest, Russia’s largest mining company, the country’s Baikal copper mining company and telecommunications operator MegaFon. The US publication Forbes estimates his wealth from these and other assets to be currently $14.8bn.

Moshiri, now resident in Monaco, made his own considerable riches largely by being accountant, adviser, then junior shareholder in USM, after Usmanov sold a minority stake to the company’s executives in 2014.

When Moshiri was selected by Everton’s chairman, Bill Kenwright, as the magnate to buy and take the club into a more secure future, Usmanov, who watches Arsenal’s matches from a hospitality box at the Emirates Stadium, bought Moshiri’s 15% stake in Arsenal for around £146m, thereby freeing up his partner to take effective control at Goodison.

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Everton seal naming rights deal with Alisher Usmanov’s USM Holdings
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To the question now of whether Usmanov, really, is behind the Everton investment, given the money for the sponsorship is coming from a company which he substantially owns, a spokesman for him and Moshiri stated again that this is not so, and that the two football projects are entirely separate. The spokesman said there is a purely commercial rationale for USM to sponsor Finch Farm, saying: “Everton represents a great opportunity for USM to leverage for the first time the global appeal of the Premier League to promote its holdings in a number of companies and brands. As the executive chairman and significant shareholder of USM, Farhad Moshiri is uniquely placed to align the commercial interests of his group and Everton. Whilst they work together on most things, when it comes to football Farhad’s interest is Everton and Alisher Usmanov’s is Arsenal.”

Explaining what an investment company which holds, buys and sells such vast assets sees in the sponsoring of the Everton training ground, Ivan Streshinsky, a member of the USM board, said they were acquiring an “extensive package of marketing rights” which could provide the company with “unique year-round global media exposure”. These rights include displaying the USM or other brand names on the LED boards around the Goodison Park pitch, backdrop for player and manager TV interviews, and access to Everton players for promotion purposes.

USM, the investment company for his vast holdings, is pumping money into Everton by sponsoring Finch Farm

Both the Premier League and Uefa financial regulations, designed to limit clubs’ losses being bankrolled by wealthy owners, require sponsorship deals connected to a club owner to be for “market value”. That is to ensure a sponsorship is not a back-door way for an owner to pour money in, so in theory this deal could be investigated for proof it is truly commercial.

After an examination by Uefa of Manchester City’s deals with a roster of companies based in Abu Dhabi, the country of which the club’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is a member of the ruling family, City agreed in May 2014 not to “improve the financial terms” of two “second-tier” partnerships, despite maintaining that they represent “market value”. At Stoke, the club’s owners, Peter Coates and his family, also own the online gambling powerhouse, bet365, which now sponsors the stadium as well as the club shirt.

But Premier League rules on “market value” would only be applied at all if clubs would otherwise have made losses beyond the currently permitted £105m total over three seasons, and given the new £8bn TV deals for 2016-19, Everton, like Stoke, are not expected to fall anywhere close to that category. Neither club is playing in Uefa competitions, so the auditors at European football’s governing body’s headquarters by Lake Geneva will not be descending on the Everton or Stoke accounts for now. Even if they do, both clubs are confident that their sponsorships, although by companies in effect owned or run by their owners, fall within the boundaries of “market value”.



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Everton are looking to leave the cramped surroundings of Goodison Park, their home since 1892. Photograph: Chris Brunskill Ltd/Getty Images
Moshiri, as revealed by Everton in financial figures published for the AGM, has already made a loan to the club, interest free, of £80m, to pay off £55m of other loans, and provide some money for operations. Some Everton sources say he has paid some more in this month, to facilitate signing players in this January transfer window, with at least one more signing expected for Ronald Koeman following the acquisitions of Morgan Schneiderlin, for £20m from Manchester United, and Ademola Lookman, £11m from Charlton Athletic. Kenwright, who has stayed on as chairman after selling half his 26% stake to Moshiri, is continuing to negotiate the deals to sign players.

With Moshiri and his money now behind them, Everton are embarking again on a quest for a new stadium, with two failed projects, on Liverpool’s King’s Dock, then a joint project with Tesco in Kirkby, behind them in the last 20 years. This time, while the chief executive, Robert Elstone, has said three options are under consideration, the favoured choice is to build a 50,000-seat new stadium on the north Liverpool waterside, at Bramley Moore dock. The land, which is owned by the ubiquitous north-west developer Peel Holdings, would have to be bought by Everton, and its development value as a key part of a wider regeneration project makes it more expensive as well as most attractive.

The discussion within Everton is that the new stadium could cost around £300m, which would mostly have to be borrowed, and Elstone and his team are tasked with examining how that would pay for itself in increased ticket sales, much more hospitality than in the hemmed-in, grand confines of Goodison, and possible naming rights.


Unlike other clubs, including Manchester City and West Ham United, whose stadiums were built and converted for them with public and lottery money following the 2002 Commonwealth Games and 2012 Olympics respectively; Swansea City and Hull City whose local councils built their new grounds, and Arsenal, who made multi-millions on property development at and around Highbury, Everton have no windfall to help them finance a new stadium.

Liverpool’s mayor, Joe Anderson, told the Guardian that he wants to examine whether the council could help, perhaps in conjunction with a bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Liverpool city council, which will in March decide how to make a further £90m cuts to its budget, on top of £330m taken out of its budget since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government came to power in 2010, has been seeking ways to generate money, by borrowing at low rates and renting assets commercially. In 2013 the council bought Finch Farm from its then landlord for £14m, and the rent from Everton, which Anderson said is £400,000 currently, makes a £200,000 annual profit for the council.

“Everton haven’t directly asked us for any financial contribution,” Anderson said. “But a stadium in that area will be very important for the regeneration of north Liverpool, and if it benefits the city financially, we’ll do it.”

Everton are pressing on with assessing the economics and practicalities of this next push to leave their historic home at Goodison, which was England’s first ever purpose-built football ground when it opened in 1892. The club and its new owner hope to reach a decision by the end of this 2016-17 season, 125 years later, on the next stage for its future.

The existing ruling football elite are rallying their attack dogs I see

Doesn't matter, we're accustomed to fighting from underneath, looks like we'll have to do a tad bit more for the foreseeable future

Bring it
 
Bold bit I have to take issue with. We simply haven't spent "money" as in what you'd call invested money - we've spent less than the TV money thus far in transfers over two windows. In short, Moshiri hasn't done anything Kenwright couldn't have done yet, except get the USM deal for Finch Farm and be able to loan us some money.

So he's basically Vibrac without the interest at the moment, that's it.


Think most people have worked out now that the 'prioritising' of signing Morgan. Over Depay was a smoke screen for not having money for both despite the managers comments and manchester evening saying we agreed terms for depay. Tom Niasse Geri all out with options to buy. With possibly Mccarthy and Jags out means we will have sold to buy again. Even if we finish off with positive spend this window the money will come back due to TV money excess revenue and future player sales we will see in the summer when Lukaku is sold.
 

Everyone saying that Moshiri so far hasn't lived up to their expectations...

What are the expectations you have?

What exactly was said by Moshiri or the club to give you these expectations?



I honestly don't understand people thinking we were going to be able to go an boss transfer windows after finishing 11th and restrained by FFP rules.
 
Everyone saying that Moshiri so far hasn't lived up to their expectations...

What are the expectations you have?

What exactly was said by Moshiri or the club to give you these expectations?



I honestly don't understand people thinking we were going to be able to go an boss transfer windows after finishing 11th and restrained by FFP rules.

A few people expected us to go all out and sign Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez within 2 days of this window opening.
 
A few people expected us to go all out and sign Messi, Ronaldo and Suarez within 2 days of this window opening.

No they didn't...

Must admit the cultish comments here are making me laugh; please keep on defending your messiah-for-some-reason-despite-no-reason-to-be-one-yet.
 

Everyone saying that Moshiri so far hasn't lived up to their expectations...

What are the expectations you have?

What exactly was said by Moshiri or the club to give you these expectations?



I honestly don't understand people thinking we were going to be able to go an boss transfer windows after finishing 11th and restrained by FFP rules.
This year we are not really restrained, we could spend almost £200m and still be compliant. The issue was wages and the Stones sale allows us to boost those substantially, but only if it is done this season.

I think many of us were expecting more of a splash in the transfer market given this opportunity. As it stands, and things may change, we will have spent the Sky and Stones money and no more. I don't blame Moshiri for that, he's a businessman not a sugar daddy, but he should tell Bill to shut his mouth as it is his statements that raised expectations beyond what was seemingly planned.
 
This year we are not really restrained, we could spend almost £200m and still be compliant. The issue was wages and the Stones sale allows us to boost those substantially, but only if it is done this season.

I think many of us were expecting more of a splash in the transfer market given this opportunity. As it stands, and things may change, we will have spent the Sky and Stones money and no more. I don't blame Moshiri for that, he's a businessman not a sugar daddy, but he should tell Bill to shut his mouth as it is his statements that raised expectations beyond what was seemingly planned.

It's not just Bill spouting crap though; Moshiri isn't immune to criticism. His comments to the AGM and Jim White haven't been borne out by actions.
 
This year we are not really restrained, we could spend almost £200m and still be compliant. The issue was wages and the Stones sale allows us to boost those substantially, but only if it is done this season.

I think many of us were expecting more of a splash in the transfer market given this opportunity. As it stands, and things may change, we will have spent the Sky and Stones money and no more. I don't blame Moshiri for that, he's a businessman not a sugar daddy, but he should tell Bill to shut his mouth as it is his statements that raised expectations beyond what was seemingly planned.


Ok, tell me how we could spend almost 200 million pounds? The accounts released for last season show over 20 million of loss, so where does that money come from?

I'm assuming that this means you expect Moshiri to dole us out 200 million quid for transfers out of his own pocket?

He doesn't own all of the club yet and has to buy those shares still. He'd be inflating the value of the shares he doesn't yet own with his own money. I'm thankful that with the situation as it is that he has seen fit to give us 80 million quid on an interest free loan.

Again I have to ask why people were expecting us to "make more of a splash in the transfer market". I think things would be different if Moshiri had complete control and over 50%.

At this point now, with the January window, we have definitely spent more than the Stones money.

What statements from Bill have raised expectations beyond what was seemingly planned?
 
He had to do that, and it effectively forms part of his purchase cost of the club. You don't get to gain control of Everton for 90 million pound when Aston Villa is getting sold for just under 70 million in the Championship. It does relieve us of the interest payments burden, but I believe it won't effect FFP because it's not investment in the first team.

That's all fair comment, my point was just that Kenwright without Moshiri wouldn't have been able to spend like we are now because the revenues were going on servicing/repaying the debt.
 

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