As the hours tick by in week 23 of the 12-week (max) approval process for 777’s takeover of Everton, it is reassuring to know that someone is still making regular calls to the Premier League to find out what is going on.
It is perhaps less reassuring, though, to know that person is former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein.
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That is not because Dein is not a very experienced and well-respected figure in the football industry; on the contrary, he is both of those. It is more because his track record with Everton’s owners is not the strongest part of his CV.
The last man he tipped for that role was current owner Farhad Moshiri, whose reign at Everton has been… disappointing.
The British-Iranian businessman’s total losses on his Everton investment are likely to go beyond £750million ($950m), while the Premier League club are involved in a third straight relegation battle, awaiting verdicts on two breaches of the league’s spending rules, and are more than £500m in debt. There is, however, a new stadium to look forward to.
Moshiri told supporters last September that 777, a Miami-based private investment firm that has stakes in seven other clubs, is the “best partner to take our great club forward with all the benefits of (its) multi-club investment model”, but the promised regulatory approval has not arrived.
Dein, 80, has told friends his interest in the takeover is simply a result of a relationship with Everton that goes back to the late 1980s when he and his opposite number at Goodison Park, the late Sir Philip Carter, helped to create the Premier League. He then enjoyed a strong friendship with Carter’s successor, the late Bill Kenwright. There is no suggestion he has any financial links with 777 or is looking for a job at Everton.
However, it is Dein’s relationship with Moshiri that has raised some eyebrows around the league, as it was Moshiri and his business partner Alisher Usmanov who made Dein a wealthy man in 2007 when they paid him £75m for his 14.58 per cent stake in Arsenal.
That decision infuriated Dein’s fellow Arsenal directors and he was forced to leave the board, citing “irreconcilable differences” – a situation not helped when Dein became chairman of the company set up by Moshiri and Usmanov to attempt a full takeover of Arsenal. He stood down from that role in 2008, but a reconciliation with the London club he served so well has proved elusive.
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While that upsets Dein, it has not damaged his reputation as one of English football’s great networkers. As well as running Arsenal for nearly a quarter of a century, Dein is a former Football Association board member and president of the European Club Association’s forerunner, the G14 group of leading clubs. He has also sat on committees at FIFA and UEFA and was the international president of England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup.
A wag might suggest he is used to lobbying for lost causes, then. We, on the other hand, will just point out that recent weeks have seen three senior members of staff leave 777, including two who appeared in the sales pitch for Everton; a second downgrade of its Bermuda-based reinsurance subsidiary’s investment rating; and the late payment of wages at its Belgian football subsidiary, Standard Liege, for a third straight month.
777’s response to these latest apparent setbacks can be summed up as people come, people go, perhaps the Premier League should make a decision; the Bermudan situation has no impact on its ability to buy or fund Everton; and the issue at Standard Liege is a row between the club and a former CEO that predates them and all wages have been paid.
Plenty for Dein and the Premier League to talk about for another week. At least.
From one never-ending story to another.
We must be into three figures when it comes to weeks since the Premier League and English Football League started talking about the so-called “new deal for football”, a more even financial distribution model for the professional game, and yet it is amazing how much confusion it still causes.
Last week, Lucy Frazer, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the government department most concerned with the health of the national game, started a conference call with EFL club bosses by saying how good it was to be talking to representatives of all 74 teams. It went downhill from there.
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Frazer, fresh from talks with Premier League club executives, began by telling the EFL crowd that they should be proud of their chairman Rick Parry for representing them so ably in the talks with the Premier League, but she then told them it was perhaps time to put down their weapons and shake hands on the generous deal the top flight was offering, as they might not get an offer this good again.
There are two problems with this thesis, though, as club after club told Frazer until the allotted hour was up, leaving several clubs with their hands still raised in the virtual waiting room.
One, the Premier League has not offered the EFL anything yet. A proposal was shared six months ago, but the Premier League’s board has not been able to formalise it as its clubs are still arguing about the cost controls in their league and how the extra money for the EFL is funded. The Premier League has been so divided on these issues that the board has not dared to put the “new deal” to a vote.
And two, if Frazer’s government is, as promised, about to appoint an independent regulator with “backstop powers” to enforce a fairer distribution, why might the EFL never get an offer this good again?
Frazer did not answer the first question, or if she did nobody on the call understood it, but she did appear to answer the second by saying the Premier League does not want the regulator to have the power to unpick the mooted six-year deal. This did not go down well.
Several clubs asked: what would be the point of bringing in a well-staffed regulator if they were unable to perform one of their key functions? Why even bother with a regulator? Who would want the job?
Some clubs pointed out that Frazer and her Conservative party are likely to be booted out of government this year and perhaps it was better to wait for the next lot to come in and get the regulator going. They might, then, get the more holistic look at the game’s books they have been asking for.
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This should give everyone at Sunday’s Carabao Cup final plenty to talk about over their prawn sandwiches. As it is their competition, it is always a good chance for EFL club execs to break bread with the bosses of whichever Premier League sides have made it to Wembley, as well as a smattering of Premier League board members and politicians.
The irony here, of course, is that there are many in the Premier League who would drop the Carabao Cup tomorrow if it would free up some time for more European games or a mid-winter tour of the Gulf.
With the football governance bill apparently imminent (although that has been the case for at least three months), the Premier League has called another meeting of its clubs on February 29. The Athletic has not spoken to a club that thinks agreement there is imminent, as the fact a second meeting has been pencilled in for March 11 would seem to suggest.
Speaking of who might want to be the first independent regulator for English football, it does feel close enough for people to gossip about “runners and riders”.
So far, the suggested field can be divided into three camps: politicians who like football, regulators who like football, and football executives who do not like regulation.
In the first group, you have the former prime minister and rank outsider Gordon Brown and former sports minister Tracey Crouch, who is one of a very select group of people who has a good idea of what the regulator should do, as she oversaw the fan-led review of the game’s governance that recommended independent regulation. She has also just announced that she is standing down as an MP at the next general election. However, it should also be made clear that she has given no indication that she fancies the job. In fact, she might just want a break. Worth an each-way bet, though.
In the second group are two former governors of the Bank of England: Mervyn King, who was also a director at Aston Villa, and Mark Carney, the Canadian economist who is now chairman at financial data company Bloomberg and a United Nations special envoy for climate change. He is also an Everton fan.
And former Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa executive Christian Purslow is in the final group. Why his name has been linked with the job is not entirely clear, but he would be a popular choice for clubs who want as little to do with the regulator as possible.
If you are looking for reasons why the game needs a financial reset, here are three from the last week alone.
Last Thursday, West Bromwich Albion announced that Florida-based businessman Shilen Patel has agreed to buy them from current owner Guochuan Lai.
This news was joyfully greeted by the Championship club’s fans as Lai’s clueless spell in charge has seen two relegations, albeit with one promotion in between, and a massive deterioration in the club’s finances. So much so that a once well-run club was heading towards bankruptcy.
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Perhaps the best evidence of this narrowly avoided crash can be seen in the return on investment Lai is getting. The Chinese businessman paid about £200million for what was a Premier League club in 2016.
Patel is paying him only £10m guaranteed – £2.5m on completion, £2.5m in August and £5.5m in August 2025.
There is the possibility of bonus payments if West Brom are promoted. Go up this season, and they are currently fifth, and Patel will pay Lai an extra £18m. Promotion next season would trigger a £10m payment, £5m the following season and £2m if West Brom have to wait until the 2026-27 season.
The real benefit to Lai is that funding West Brom’s annual losses and repaying their debts are now somebody else’s problems.
West Brom, however, can at least look forward with more optimism now. The same cannot be said about Torquay United, who were promoted to League One 20 years ago but have fallen on hard times since. Now in National League South, the English game’s sixth tier, the club announced they were going into administration on Thursday.
In a statement on the club’s website, their owner, Clarke Osborne, said: “The financing of football in this country is precarious and can only thrive in the lower divisions where there is either a close collaborative relationship with the local authority, it is a trophy asset or is backed by substantial local individuals and businesses.
“I believe that it needs a fundamental overhaul of its financing structure, rights distribution in the lower leagues and recognition that many clubs represent a fundamental part of the local community and its visitor attractions.”
Osborne has made several mistakes since taking charge in 2016, but he has lent the club £5m to keep them afloat. He is unlikely to get much of that back.
But do you know what is worse than administration? Liquidation, which is the fate Rochdale face, according to their board, if the club’s 650 small shareholders do not vote the club out of fan ownership by agreeing to issue nine million new shares at an extraordinary general meeting on March 7.
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These new shares, 90 per cent of the club, will be available to purchase by a new owner for 22p each, which would immediately put £2m into the club.
The club’s current directors took over in June 2021, picking up the pieces after Rochdale were relegated from League One. With their finances already stretched by the pandemic, the board was immediately forced to defend Rochdale from a hostile takeover. They won that war but were relegated from League Two last season, ending a 102-year stay in the EFL.
But Rochdale are not a basket case. Their debts total about £1m and most of that is to the chairman. They also own their stadium, which is worth about £5m and has room for a hotel, bar/restaurant, doctor’s surgery or some other business that can generate a steady income.
If this tickles your fancy, let us know. We will put you in touch.
But until more money trickles down the pyramid, the West Broms, Rochdales and Torquays of this world will only make sense for those who really, really love them or do not mind spending a few million a year on their hobby.
(Top photo: David Dein; Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)