Zezti
Player Valuation: £70m
He said he's open to investing, suggested new stadium could called "USM Arena" in a Financial Times interview.
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov eyes stake in Everton
Tycoon open to various forms of investment in Premier League club
edit:
Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov is eyeing a stake in Everton football club, just over a year after he gave up a $1.3bn bid to take control of Arsenal.
Mr Usmanov, who has built a $16.5bn fortune from Russian metals, telecoms and technology, said in a Lunch with the FT interview this weekend that he was open to various forms of investment into the Premier League club, which is struggling on the pitch amid mounting financial losses and debts.
“I am thinking about my investment into this club,” he said. “There are many ways [to invest]. It is not obligatory for me to participate myself. I could sponsor them. I could be a shareholder.”
Everton is controlled by his longtime business partner Farhad Moshiri, whose wealth is closely tied to Mr Usmanov, as executive chairman and shareholder in the Russian tycoon’s holding company USM.
Since Mr Moshiri became the biggest shareholder of the Liverpool-based club three years ago, it has gone on a spending spree on players in an effort to push into the elite of the English game.
Those efforts have largely failed, but the ambition remains undimmed. Last month, the club fired manager Marco Silva and replaced him with Carlo Ancelotti, a three-time winner of the Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious club competition and a coach considered among the world’s best.
New funding from Mr Usmanov would also ease growing financial issues related to the push for silverware. In the 2017-18 season, the club had net debts of £66m, down from a net cash position of £9.6m in 2016/17.
Over the same period, the club made a pre-tax loss of £13m compared with a profit of £30m a year earlier, thanks to big increases on spending on player transfers and salaries. Despite this, the team is in 11th place in the Premier League table.
Mr Usmanov, who is a close friend of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, said that he would invest in Everton “with great pleasure” if Mr Moshiri asked him to. “Everton is the club of my friend, my brother,” he said. “So of course in a manner I am [already] linked to it.”
John Blain, chair of Everton Football Club Shareholders’ Association, a body that represents the interests of its small stockholders, said any move by Mr Usmanov to acquire a stake would “excite the fan base”.
“Farhad is a wealthy man, but it doesn’t compare to Alisher’s,” said Mr Blain. “And many hands make light work.”
Everton declined to comment.
In recent years, Mr Usmanov launched attempts to acquire Arsenal, the London-based club considered one of the Premier League’s “Big Six” — an elite group that includes Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
He gave up that ambition in 2018, selling a 30 per cent share of the London-based club to majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, the US sports mogul, for £550m, ending a long-running ownership battle between the billionaires.
Since then, Mr Usmanov has built ties to Everton. USM sponsors the club’s training ground and the Russian said he could also acquire naming rights over a £500m new stadium the club intends to build to replace its Goodison Park ground.
“They are going to build a new stadium. Why not the USM Arena?,” he said. “Our company wants to help him [Mr Moshiri].
“I cannot reject Arsenal,” Mr Usmanov added. “I will not leave Arsenal as a fan. But if I will join Everton, then I will wear an Everton shirt, because I am a professional.”
