The attempt by 777 Partners to take control of Everton looks destined to fail but Farhad Moshiri must avoid any temptation to keep it on life support.
As the US investment group’s empire has suffered blow after blow it has, until now, clung on to its ambitions of securing a deal for one of European football’s great clubs. That has essentially been down to contractual obligations.
- The technicalities look set to end on May 31, the group’s share purchase agreement deadline, providing Moshiri with an opportunity to formally look elsewhere. He simply has to do that. He also has to learn from the past and, for the good of Everton, not sacrifice due diligence to fall at the feet of a suitor who is willing to offer money upfront as 777 Partners have done since September.
- From the outside, 777 Partners look incapable of meeting the Premier League conditions that were laid out as the pathway to regulatory approval. The group is mired in turmoil, the subject of $600m fraud allegations in a civil lawsuit filed in New York, the owner of an airline that has been entered into a messy voluntary administration and holder of a portfolio of football clubs who are fighting to escape its clutches. Standard Liege, a club under a third transfer ban on the watch of 777 Partners, where staff have repeatedly been paid late this year, was unable to play a match after protesting supporters prevented the team from reaching its home stadium. Control of Vasco de Gama has been suspended by a judge after a hearing in Rio de Janeiro. 777 Partners have slammed that case, branding it a “legal aberration”.
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