PREMIER LEAGUE boss Richard Masters has given the strongest hint yet that the League will NEVER accept 777 Partners as the owners of Everton.
Masters has come under fire for the drawn-out process that has seen Prem lawyers receive to green light the £500m deal after EIGHT months.
The league’s caution has been justified by the financial chaos that seems to be plunging the Miami-based company to the brink of collapse.
Founding partners Josh Wander and Steve Pasko have been booted off the 777 board, the company could be stripped of its ownership of Belgians Standard Liege in a court case starting this week, while Goodison owner Farhad Moshiri appears to have finally accepted the takeover deal is dead in the water.
And now Masters has told MPs in a Commons hearing that they can “make their own conclusions” about why the Prem has declined to ratify the agreement.
Pressed by former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green over the delay in coming to a decision, Masters said: “Let me be clear about what the Premier League’s role in this is.
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“As the regulator, it is to perform the owners and directors test – not to decide who the current owner wants to sell his club to. That is his decision.
“At the moment he wants to consider having discussions with 777 about it.
“The Premier League is very clear of the conditions that have to be met by 777 if it wishes to become the owner of Everton.
“And at the moment, because the takeover has not been confirmed, I will leave it to the committee to make its own conclusions as to where we are with that.”
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Masters added that the planned Independent Football Regulator might be able to process potential takeover deals quicker than the league because of its enhanced powers.
He said: “Some of the benefits of the regulatory ownership test will be them getting access to more information than we can have.
“We are not a statutory body so we can only get the information we are provided with.
“I accept that takeovers that carry on for a long time are not good for fans’ certainty and that is why we have a very big team of people who do nothing else.
“Over time I would say that particularly in the Premier League takeovers are becoming increasingly complex.
“This is not a small undertaking to take this burden on which is why I want to remain involved in it as well.
“These things are very complicated and we need to make sure that all those decisions are correct even if that means taking a little bit more time to make sure those decisions are correct.
Latest on Everton’s new stadium
EVERTON are still trying to build their new state-of-the-art stadium despite financial difficulties.
Toffees’ fans were treated with new photos of the £760million construction of their Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium.
The club hopes it will be ready in time for the 2025-26 campaign.
However, the Merseysiders have failed to secure the funds for the next phase of the ground’s development.
Here’s the lowdown on the stunning ground being built by the Toffees:
Expected completion date: End of 2024
Capacity: 53,000
Cost: £760m
Location: Bramley-Moore Docks, Liverpool
Design: Bowl-shaped constructed from steel and glass
Main features: 13,000-seat steep stand inspired by Dortmund’s ‘Yellow wall’, ‘ALL Experience’ that offers choice of social spaces from pubs, bars, high-street style restaurants to fine-dining experiences, scoreboard
“Maybe the Regulator could come to conclusions quicker.
“But I know a little bit more about the background here and what the situation would be like.
“I can’t say too much about it but I do think there are some benefits to the Regulator working in tandem with Leagues on this particular topic.”
Quizzed further by Green on what should happen if the Prem and the Regulator disagreed on the suitability of a potential owner, Masters suggested: “Maybe it should be like the X Factor – where you need two green ticks to get in.
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“So you would have the Premier League operating its own test.
“In the unlikely event that the Regulator said yes and we said no then that person couldn’t take over that club and vice versa.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
