TOFFEES IN DOCK
Rival clubs up in arms over Everton’s ‘financial doping’
THE Premier League are set to scrutinise Alisher Usmanov’s extraordinary naming rights deal for Everton’s proposed new stadium amid concerns from rival clubs that it could constitute a breach of the organisation’s rules.
The announcement that Usmanov’s holding company USM has spent £30million acquiring the option to buy the naming rights for a ground that is not due to open until 2023 — building work has yet to begin — was greeted with incredulity by Everton’s top-flight rivals yesterday. Several club executives told
Sportsmail that the unprecedented arrangement appeared to be a ruse designed to help Everton bypass profit and sustainability rules. A number of clubs want the Premier League to investigate whether the future naming rights option is a breach of the rules, which could lead to Everton being forced to repay some of the £30m.
Usmanov, a Uzbek-born Russian tycoon, is a business partner of Everton’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, who is also the chairman of USM, a company set up by Usmanov in 2012 which has sponsored the club’s Finch Farm training ground since 2016.
Under Premier League Rule E.1 all 20 clubs are required to file accounts to the Premier League for the current financial year each March, and Everton’s submission in two months’ time is likely to lead to scrutiny of the deal.
Everton could face questions over whether £30m for the option to purchase naming rights represents a fair market rate and whether Usmanov is an independent party. Rule E.54 further states that if the Premier League determine that a sponsorship deal is above the market rate ‘the Board shall restate it to Fair Market Value’.
Everton are understood to have made the Premier League aware of the deal before the contract was signed last week, and are confident it will comply with their regulations. Everton announced the deal on Tuesday, the same day they published record losses of £112m for 2018-19, including an operating loss of £29.7m.
Although Everton are currently compliant with the Premier League’s rules, which prohibit clubs from losing more than £105m over a three-year period, they have little margin for error.
Everton have yet to receive planning permission for the stadium they are hoping to build at Bramley-Moore Dock, a project that has been in development since 1996.
Premier League clubs are asking how Everton can bank cash related to a sponsorship deal for a building that does not exist. One source at a Premier League club who did not wish to be named told Sportsmail it was a clear case of financial doping, pointing to the similarity between the £30m deal and the club’s £29.7m operating loss.
Everton and the Premier League declined to comment.