Everton to add Megafon signage to Goodison's exterior

And the plot thickens.

That's the only signing of the window then.

Signage, Paul

Just having a laugh Dennis mate.

This is good news. Making Megafon more prominent justifies a bigger sponsorship.

Slowly integrating the money into the business is the way to stop FFP and UEFA being able to object when the bigger stuff starts rolling in.

And some of you doubted Mr Moshiri's ability as an Accountant.

Next will be Mr Ancellotti's transfer funds, as soon as planning permission is granted. As someone once said: "You don't have tax problems, you just don't have a good accountant."

Expecting the spending to come after we've moved the last massive splurge out of the 3-year FFP cycle.

No extra money for this.

And the plot thickens.

Don’t know about anyone else, but they are easily my favourite Russian telecoms company.

No Colin, but it does suggest Megafon are a step closer to replacing Sportpesa

As someone just brought up FFP again, this is a good moment to report a finding that as well as spending on infrastructure and youth development, cost of work in the community can also be taken off losses.

EitC is more useful to the first team than you might think. Anyone would think we had an accountant getting things in order.

Megafon sim card: unlimited data, calls and messages for around 400 roubles a month.

I wouldn't have anything else.

Bill @14, for everything else there's MasterCard!

Genuine question, not sure how the vagueries of FFP works so, am I right in thinking that come the Summer Transfer Window or a date very near to it, we have basically a clean slate?

Derek; I think it works on a 3 year cycle based on our accounting year date which I think is around July.

Another question; is the cost of running our Women's squad offset against the losses?

Thanks Bill, but it makes you wonder what may have been with Carlo Ancelotti in place, after Martinez was sacked, what a different squad we may have had.

All hypothetical I know, but the amount that has been wasted, on not only poor players, but Managerial Compensations is just a travesty in retrospect, but we seem to be going in the right direction now, hopefully!

FFP states amongst other things that we must not exceed £105 million in losses over the last three years. This rolls forward every year.

At the moment we are something like –13+31–112 or similar = –£94 million. Even worse we are about to lose the one year we made a profit from the calculation. That has led to some speculating that we will pass the limit this summer if we have made a loss this year, so squad investment must wait.

However, we can knock off infrastructure investment, youth development and community projects from the total, which by my reckoning (not particularly well informed but taken from club accounts) could total £30 - 50 million per year plus any investment in community projects.

Even if my lower figure is correct we have much less to worry about than some might think.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/29361839

Thanks Thomas, got a clearer picture now. It amazes me apart from what I stated before with the wastage of funds, that ii has until recently continued.

Let me explain: when we first went in for Jonas Lössl on a free from relegated Huddersfield, I thought it made sense because it was alleged that Stekelenburg was due to leave.

Not only is Stekelenburg still here, but Lössl, who was on £28k/week at Huddersfield, was given £53k/week – an increase of £25k. As if this was not flagrant enough, he hasn't been on the bench very often either, with Stekelenburg being preferred.

At a time when they are stating record losses, is it any wonder why? It is sometimes beyond belief.

DK #19, don't know where you got that information on Lössl, but every source I can find has him listed still at £28,000/week.

https://www.spotrac.com/epl/everton-f.c/payroll/

Interestingly, he's still being paid more than Calvert-Lewin, Holgate and Davies.

It looks to me like Farhad has called on his mate to bail him out of the financial mess football has got him into. I always suspected that Alisher would follow Farhad to Everton anyhow. What was he going to do for a plaything once it was clear that Stan wouldn't let him take over at Arsenal?

Hopefully Alisher will have more nouse than Farhad and not spunk his millions on stupid contracts for over-valued players. Alisher was behind the deal for Carlo to become manager. Let's hope he knows a few decent players or is mates with their agents.

Mbape, Koulibaly and a couple of midfielders would do for starters. 😊 I won't hold my breath, though, this is Everton we are talking about.

Jason:

"Alisher was behind the deal for Carlo to become manager."

Nope. Carlo says otherwise.

"No, absolutely not. I spoke with Mr Farhad, I spoke with Mr Bill Kenwright, with Mr Marcel, I met Alisher Usmanov one time ago but it was for social, there was no involvement for football."

I believe him over that Financial Times rumour.

The only snag with that logic, Mike, is why would Usmanov meet Carlo just when he might be needing reassurance about funding (the exact timing of the meeting is vague but seems to be recently)? He has no connection with footy having sold his Arsenal Shares and of course, little connection with us... and then Carlo signs for Everton who shortly afterwards receive a large supportive payment.

I agree, we should ignore rumour, and speculation is just for fun, but there are better grounds than most to assume that there might be a link here.

Mike @20, that is the source I was quoting, although I did see somewhere else at the time he signed that it was actually more than that.

£62k was the figure I remember as it represented more than doubling what he was on at Huddersfield, which shocked me at the time, but I can't remember where it was I saw it. Hence I quoted the above reference which is still astronomic for a player who is not even on the bench.

Derek @24,

So Lössl has just been relegated to the Championship where potentially his contract may say his wages drop, yet he persuades Everton to not only resurrect his Premier League career, he says he will only go if we more than double his wages?

Lössl did not come with a great reputation either. Do you think anyone – let alone Brands – could negotiate a worse contract than this?

Back to the subject of this thread, Megafon.

Surely this is going to be the main sponsor of the club, the training ground and the stadium?

Is this just the telecommunications side of USM? Either way, one of them will be the name of the new stadium, I'm sure.

I wasn't aware of Carlo's interview. I still believe USM are the reason he has chosen to join us though.

I just can't see Bill and Farhad convincing him that coming to Everton is a smart move. Unless the backing of USM was on the agenda during talks.

Jason, Bill told Carlo he’d get him a date with Dame Judi Dench dressed up as a cat. Carlo loves his pussy cats.

Not being in the UK anymore, do Megafon have any UK presence?

Bring it Al, bring it.

Kristian @29, as far as I am aware they are the largest Mobile Phone Company in Russia, but do not operate in the UK, but the way Companies work and are owned these days, it could be under another guise or name.

As you are probably aware apart from the big ones, new ones spring up every now and then offering better deals. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't also operate in the Balkan States and Eastern Europe. Hope that helps!

Never mind outside the ground, get Megafon playing, and sign up the other two as well, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Should add a bit of steel to our midfield and firepower up front.

Hello

On the topic of FFP and the 3-year operating loss window, last year's massive loss will mean that we won't have a "safe" 3 year period for a couple more years now, but that can be mitigated by generating new revenue combined with moving out some high-wage, low-return pieces.

It likely won't be this summer though; more likely summer 2021, once even more come off the books, like Walcott, Schneiderlin, Bolasie & Sandro (remember them?!). In addition to of course those who come off this summer.

I don't know the specifics of how these financials are calculated, but I believe that even if we're able to move some out before the ends of their current contracts, then anything left owed on their original transfer fees has to be mitigated by any transfer fees we can collect on them. Otherwise the remainder is owed and becomes a loss. It's a difficult scenario for certain.

Great news about Megafon. We have finally started to pull in the bigger sponsorship deals. Also, I'm sure once the stadium gets approval a big chunk of the existing costs can be capitalised into Fixed Assets which will move them out of the profit/loss accounts for the last year and reduce the losses figure. We might actually have our shit together now.

MegaFon is just part of USM. There is no new sponsorship deal here.

We get sponsored by Chinese companies and the advertising hoardings are in Chinese to appeal to Chinese viewers. Chang adverts had Thai writing, although they tried to sell their beer around the world too.

So, why are the MegaFon adverts in English? You can't get MegaFon in England. If it was a genuine advert then this would be in Russian. They don't even use the same alphabet.

This is clearly all done for FFP purposes. We're trying to make it look like we have genuine sponsorship. It should work, but it's obvious that this is just a vehicle for Usmanov to pump money into Everton.

Steve; you're probably right but the adverts don't have to be in Russian. Essentially, it's the Megafon brand name that's being peddled.

If they ever venture outside of Russia, consumers will already be familiar with the Megafon brand.

Steve F @35, "Megaton"? Think you dropped a bombshell there, mate, :-)

Or is it Megatron!!!?

Man City banned from the Champions League: Link

Are you guys still not worried about USM?

AC Milan were banned from Europe last year. Their place went to Torino instead. The league sends who they want. If we get 5th then we get Champions League footy, depending on the inevitable legal challenge.

Steve the big difference for us is that Usmanov has no ties to us other than sponsorship. The Man City guys have been caught using their own money through different guises, so Fifa have been able to prove it's come from the same source.

Usmanov owns nothing of us. As far as I know, it's not illegal for a friend to sponsor a friend or their enterprise.

I can't see how we can ever be penalized as long as Usmanov never ever legally owns any stake in us. I think this action against Man City does mean that Usmanov will never own a stake in us for fear of retrospective punishment.

Court of Arbitration next. Man City sound very confident.

Carl, where did Moshiri get his money from to buy Everton? Is Usmanov a shadow Director? There’s a lot of questions and I don’t share your confidence.

But Steve, if Moshiri got his money before buying Everton, could that still rebound on us??

Brent, the “Panama Papers” imply that Usmanov paid for Moshiri's Arsenal shares that Moshiri then sold to buy Everton. So, there is reason to be worried as far as I'm concerned.

Steve you clearly know more about this than me. Could Moshiri argue that he used money he already had to buy Everton, and that the money from sale of his Arsenal shares was separate from that??

Brent, Moshiri denied that Usmanov gave him the money and denounced the BBC allegations.

Any investigation into Everton would reopen this. I have faith Moshiri and Usmanov know what they are doing and have top lawyers.

I'm still worried and I'll be hoping that Man City win their case.

From what I know, Steve, and it's not a lot, to be fair, Usmanov bought Moshiri's shares in Arsenal more or less what he bought us for. But again, is selling something to a friend or even business partner illegal? And Moshiri didn't set the price for Everton, Kenwright would have. So it doesn't look good, but very easy to argue.

The whole Man City thing will be dealt with quickly as the punishment is immediate. 5th place this season could be enough for Champions League if City fail. But, Fifa are taking on an entire country and its rulers!

If City's punishment is indeed upheld, surely it's a matter of time before PSG suffer the same way?

Carl, I'm far from an expert in this field, but I do know a lot more than your average layman. There's enough there to be worried. And it's not just Moshiri proving ownership of his shares. That might not be something UEFA bother with.

They can simply just say USM own all these companies sponsoring Everton and Moshiri is on the board, therefore the sponsorship is a method of pumping in funds to get around FFP, but they would need to prove that the sponsorship is inflated. Everton need to be very careful.

I think if they go after too many of what are now considered Europe’s big clubs, I’d expect rumors of a breakaway euro super league to resurface. I think this is all face saving by Fifa trying to show they are clamping down, knowing full well cas will throw it out. Real Madrid, Barca, psg, juve ( who for a team with a stadium of just 40,000, don’t have pay high wages and found a fortune for Ronaldo) will all be very nervous.

I completely see your point Steve about all our money coming from one source and the links are strong. We can just hope this was all well thought out before these new deals started to come into play.

I did read a club is taking on Fifa / Uefa in court regarding FFP, the club escapes me now but was something I read online. The expert they had commenting on it said a legal challenge should result in the club winning as the argument for stunting competition and growth is obvious but would be at least a 2 year process.