Everton announce Moshiri as new major shareholder

And sources close to the chairman suggest the plan now is for him to work with Moshiri to deliver a new stadium, and then look to sell the club, either to Moshiri himself, or to third party investors like the Chinese consortiums who retain an interest.

Combined with the Premier League’s new TV deal, which is set to greatly increase the budgets of the clubs, Everton suddenly find themselves flush with cash at a crucial time, per BBC Sport.

Everton confirm that the club has a new major shareholder in Farhad Moshiri after the former Arsenal shareholder purchased 49.9 percent of the club’s shares.

An American consortium headed by John Jay Moores and Charles Noell had been in talks with Everton, but an exclusivity agreement ran out at the start of January.

Moshiri and Usmanov are said to have worked together on a number of projects, including buying shares in Arsenal under the banner of Red and White Holdings.

Now, however, it appears Everton’s major shareholders have accepted a concrete offer from elsewhere, with the club’s future ownership expected to be clarified shortly.

He had grown frustrated with a lack of influence for his money at Arsenal.

The reality is, that Goodison is no longer fit to take Everton forward into the modern world of Premier League football, and it will cost at least £200m to build a new ground.

Moshiri, 60, sold his stake in Arsenal to business partner Alisher Usmanov on Friday so he could buy into Everton, who play Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-finals next month.

After meeting Usmanov in the early 90s, Moshiri became the Russian’s partner in several companies, his representative in the United Kingdom and head of Gallagher, Usmanov’s British investment company. Additional investments in United Kingdom companies, including co-ownership of USM Holding (again with Usmanov and another billionaire Andrei Skoch) have elevated his net worth to an estimated £1.2bn.

“The promise of investment in the football club is at face value exciting too and we look forward to hearing in due course what that actually means”.

And the group have welcomed the news that Bill Kenwright will remain as chairman of the Blues.