Below the full report:
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Everton’s ownership and the alleged involvement of Alisher Usmanov, the Arsenal shareholder, at Goodison Park will be scrutinised in a two-part
Panorama special to be broadcast on the BBC tomorrow and Monday.
The BBC has obtained documents pertaining to Usmanov’s purchase of a 14.58 per cent stake in Arsenal in 2007 through the Red & White investment vehicle that he jointly owned with Farhad Moshiri, who sold up to his business partner last year to facilitate his purchase of 49.9 per cent of Everton.
Moshiri sold his stake in Arsenal to Usmanov to facilitate his purchase of 49.9 per cent of Everton
It is understood that
Panorama will claim that the documents show that Moshiri’s initial Arsenal stake was a gift from Usmanov, leading to the suggestion that the billionaire from Uzbekistan was behind the Iranian’s purchase of Everton as he was the original source of the funds.
Everton and a spokesman for Usmanov deny that he has any involvement at Goodison, which would be a breach of Premier League rules that state any shareholder with a 10 per cent stake in one club cannot buy into another.
There have been unsubstantiated rumours for some time that Usmanov would ultimately join Moshiri at Everton as he has no influence at Arsenal and the pair have a number of joint investments, whispers which increased after Usmanov’s company, USM Holdings, announced a sponsorship deal for the club’s training ground in January.
The Premier League conducted a rigorous due diligence process before signing off Moshiri’s Everton purchase and is confident that he used his own money.
