Liverpool Metro Mayor confirms talks held with 777 Partners CEO

“Those concerns have been amplified as it emerges that Brazilian club Vasco De Gama - who are among the company’s portfolio of football clubs - have missed scheduled transfer payments.

According to reports in South America, Vasco are late in paying a number of clubs - French side Lille among them - money they are owed.”

Paul the Esk has a zoom meeting today with 777 to ask some questions, so I suppose this will be the basis of another one added to the list.

And Paul the Esk has tweeted that he will be meeting with 777 Partners later today: "So many questions & answers required to establish their suitability as appropriate & worthy owners of Everton Football Club."

The Vasco story sounds the same as the basketball league. Late payments, missed payments. It implies they have no money and scramble around any time a bill is due. Much like Kenwright.

How do you prove that you have the money to buy an expensive item – until the payment has been made for said item?

This deal might suit Moshiri and friends, but is it good for the club? I suppose we won't find out, until everything has been completed.

I believe Vasco were one of only two 777 clubs who had a net spend on players this summer with the other being Genoa who have since started a fan whip around to raise €5 million.

All the other 777 teams made a profit from transfer dealings. I guess the robbing Peter to pay Paul routine broke down somewhere. Maybe the Vasco money got swallowed up by settling the basketball debt?

They are probably now badgering terminally ill people to sell them their life insurance settlements so they can muster up the next payments due on Vasco's debt.

● With £440M of existing shareholder debt and £350M approx of external debt, how will 777 Partners treat the debt burden created by Moshiri?

● In addition, the future capex requirement is significant for any purchaser of Everton including future stadium funding (£250Mplus ?) and investment in the squad, what are your funding plans and to what extent will you rely on debt?

● The board and executive teams need a complete overhaul. What are your recruitment plans and how will you compete with the largest clubs for the best talent?

● What are your objectives for the business and as investors what is your medium/long term plan and exit route/timeframe?

● Within the constraints of existing Premier League regulations and the Profit and Loss position of the club, how do you meet the obvious investment needs of the squad?

● Recruitment has been Everton's greatest problem for many years. How do you propose to improve that?

● How will your multiclub model assist in the above?

● Your portfolio is expanding. How will you allocate management resources to satisfy our considerable short- and medium-term transition needs?

● What will distinguish your approach to us compared with your existing portfolio?

● More generally what is your plan for the highest levels of governance and meaningful fan engagement?

● Finally, what specific resources and expertise exists within the 777 ownership group to allow Evertonians to truly believe you can return us to the top of the domestic and European competitions in line with our club motto, NSNO?

Headlines from the 777 meeting were that it was pretty much just a "meet and greet" introductory meeting with the legal situation apparently meaning that there was no opportunity for us to ask any direct questions about the takeover, nor for him to talk about it either.

However, the basics of that were that the deal was signed 10 days ago (12 days ago now, so around the 17th) and the process should take no longer than 12 weeks which I think means we could have a new owner in mid-December at the latest if there are no issues with the authorities.

The guy he met was Don Dransfield – the CEO of their football side of things – and he has an impressive track record having worked at Man City and the City Football Group (their worldwide setup).

But as I say, they couldn't really talk about the takeover, but did talk about the other clubs they run (there are only 3 they actually run – the others they just have a stake in) and did say that they are very committed to engaging with the fanbase going forwards.

The meeting last night went well – we had about 70 that registered to attend and about 50/60 that turned up (alongside 9 FAB members out of 11) - Dave gave that above 777 update before Paul Rigby (Delaware on here) led some discussions around the understandable concerns that we all have about 777, with a view to us collating them into some questions that we will be looking to put to 777 at a future meeting.

One of his first actions when elected mayor of Liverpool was to give Gerry Marsden the freedom of the city for that god awful song they sing.

He's bound to have doubts about anything regards us if it means we may progress.

The Mayor will have other considerations connected to EFC & the funding of the Stadium.

The regeneration of the area & the Ten Streets as well as the Stadium being one of the locations for the '28 Euros
application which, if successful would be a great boon to the City.

The day 777 announced it reached an agreement with Everton’s current owner, Goney sent a letter to Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, to “warn you about 777 Partners, which owns a series of companies that profit from the misery of others.”

777 profit from the misery of others. Sounds like a great fit!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/09/29/everton-777-partners-josh-wander/

We are looking into an erupting volcano caused by a false witness and incompetent accountant (with a strong hint of illegal vodka) to quell the lava flow with a bucket of 777 brimstone.