£30M NAME GAME
Ex-Gunners backer in £30m Toffees injection
ALISHER USMANOV has increased his links to Everton with a £30m investment to have an option to buy naming rights for the club’s new stadium.
Usmanov, who sold his shares in Arsenal for £550m in the summer of 2018, is a long-time business partner of the Toffees’ majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
The Uzbekistan billionaire, 66, (inset) said last week he would be open to buying a stake in the club.
But last night at the club’s AGM it was revealed his company, USM Holdings, has paid the £30m fee to ensure they have the option to the naming rights of the BramleyMoore Docks stadium.
Everton hope to get planning permission this summer and be completed for the 2023-24 season.
USM, which Moshiri also has a stake in, have paid the fee to ensure an exclusive option for the naming rights as part of a long-term deal.
It is understood the annual fee will be well below the £20m a year Tottenham have valued their new stadium naming rights are worth, but USM could still opt out of the deal when the stadium opens.
The club are looking at funding 60 to 70 per cent of the estimated £500m cost of the new ground.
They are considering a debt facility, with JP Morgan and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group both being explored as possible lenders.
Everton published their accounts for the 13 months – due to a realignment of their accounting period – showing they made a loss of £111.9m, despite posting the secondhighest revenues in their history of £188m.
Their debt has been reduced to just over £9m from £65.7m thanks to a further interest-free loan of £50m from Moshiri, who has now invested £350m in the club.
Everton’s AGM started in dramatic fashion when a shareholder objected to director of football Marcel Brands being reappointed to the board of directors.
Prof Tom Cannon said: “The appointment of directors of football at this club have been an unmitigated failure.
“I’d struggle to point to a genuinely successful signing in the four years we’ve had one.”
However, only two shareholders objected in a vote so Brands retained his position.
New boss Carlo Ancelotti was in attendance and took questions but Moshiri was absent. Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale was later questioned on the club’s relationship with betting firm SportPesa, who are the shirt sponsors, while celebrating their work around mental health.
She said: “The company that we deal with has responsible gambling and we know our sport is underpinned by gambling. In an ideal world moving forward we would look to have a different type of sponsor on the front of our shirts.”