BILLIONAIRES’ LINK-UP PLAN AT GOODISON

BILL KENWRIGHT wants to bring together billionaires Farhad Moshiri and Alisher Usmanov.

A successful double act of Moshiri and Usmanov has potential to recapture Everton’s glory days of the 80s. Chairman Kenwright, who brought Moshiri on board, is prepared to take a back seat after the Iranian increased his shareholding from 49.9 per cent to 68.6 per cent, with the promise of it becoming 77.2 per cent by the end of next July. But lurking in the background and having the financial clout to rival the spending of Manchester City and Chelsea is Usmanov, who recently sold his 30 per cent share in Arsenal to owner Stan Kroenke for £525million. Moshiri and Usmanov are business partners and the Uzbekistanborn oligarch sponsors Everton’s Finch Farm training ground on a fiveyear deal worth around £75million.

More significantly for Everton’s future, Moshiri knows Usmanov is eager to switch his allegiance from Arsenal to another football club.