Farhad Moshiri opens up on New Stadium investment

He said he'd no regrets and they had to leave Goodison to compete.

He put in £400M himself into the new stadium?

I'm not convinced there were 'other investors' — just those crazy loans.

I hope those 'other business interests' were, for his sake, lucrative. And that he has paid off Usmanov any debt obligations.

But he was first and foremost an investor, and I don't think he professed to be an expert on all things football. His objective was to obtain significant investment to advance the club (from his own and others' pockets) and he was reliant on football 'experts' to spend that money wisely.

He of course has to take responsibility for the fact that his selection of people to spend that money wisely largely failed. But as well as the $400M he managed to obtain for recruitment when he started off, he also managed to get the where-with-all to get the stadium constructed and finished.

We may not currently have the squad to be competing for Europe as a result of his and others' decisions, but he deserves the credit for putting his money where his mouth is and facilitating the funding of our fantastic stadium.

We'd still be seen as a nostalgic old-fashioned club with an outdated stadium if it wasn't for him.

He did that, but it's hard to say that he didn't screw it up. Under his watch, we built a new stadium, got worse as a team, and went under significant financial strain. We broke rules with regard to financial sustainability and were penalised, putting the club's status at serious risk. And he and his board slandered our supporters.

From his personal perspective, he took a bath.

Success? Credit? Not for me.

The woes the club faced during his tenure were ultimately his responsibility, but not all were entirely of his making. Others obviously had a hand in all of that who are conveniently forgotten about, not least the managers who splashed all the cash but did little to significantly elevate the club's status in the Premier League.

I'm also skeptical of the many fans and TW posters who I recall were only too happy to revel in all the money being made available at the time and exalt the likes of Moshiri, Marcel and Marco et al. I remember those posters well, but I assume you weren't one of them.

Those same posters now sit with hindsight and lambast and insult the guy who, despite his mistakes, at least had the balls (and commitment) to cobble together over £1B during his time to benefit our club.

I wonder how many of us who love this club would have done the same if we had access to that sort of dough?

Thus Moshiri was also a shyster from the off, annually confirming it to the world-wide football business.

Kenwright and the board were con artists happy to screw the max for themselves as we plunged ever lower to where we still are now.

Moshiri and Kenwright severely damaged us as trophy winners… and for years yet to come.

I hope he is in attendance for the first game at the new stadium. He deserves that at least.

We do have the new Everton Stadium to thank him for and the millions he ploughed into the club.

Pitch side, he retained the old guard and gave his money to the wrong people.

I don't bear any grudges against him personally, just disappointed that he didn't take control other than his title.

Together a great post.

They say time is a great healer, possibly more mellower in Moshiri's case

Love him, hate him – the fact is, whether by luck or judgement, without him, we would be getting some paint from B&Q to give Goodison a fresh lick next month and mop the piss up out the bogs.

At the end of the day by luck we have somehow come through the Moshiri - Kenwright period and escaped disaster.

I truly hope Moshiri attends both the Southampton game and first game at the new stadium.

Foolish, reckless and naive decision-making characterised his tenure. He nearly finished us. I was happier to see the back of him than I was Kenwright.

We have to move on though, new era, new dawn, new team.

I keep saying it, but I was probably more impressed by the approach and walking through the old dock walls, that have been preserved, and seeing the outside as I was taken with the inside of the stadium itself.

There is a reason that we are becoming the location of choice for non-Everton events over the traditional Northwest venues. Rugby League and the Euros. Concerts and Boxing to follow.

For all his failings, Moshiri delivered where those before him failed.

So why on earth did he stick his ‘investor’ nose into club/team affairs then Craig? Like, for example, shithouse red Benitez, that showed that our absentee landlord had no respect for us and who we are. I do not for one second believe that ‘work’ is the reason for his long absences from The Old Lady. He went to more aways in his last two years. I wonder why?

Craig Scott 7 – ‘I'm also skeptical of the many fans and TW posters who I recall were only too happy to revel in all the money being made available at the time and exalt the likes of Moshiri, Marcel and Marco et al. I remember those posters well, but I assume you weren't one of them’.

Top snide smarmy post Craig, Of course we were fucking ‘happy to revel in all the money being made available at the time’ because for the first time in 50 years we had money. What sort of mind – yours Craig – would then use that ‘happy to revel’ after so long to criticise right-minded people who then as time unfolded and reality dawned dared, deigned, and despicably criticised Mosh for his handling of the club.

This made me laugh – ‘I remember those posters well’. You twat posters who – how could you even think of doing it you twats – said a cross word as Moshiri led us to the verge of bankruptcy and relegation.

You ungrateful bastards who our Craig can ‘recall were only too happy to revel in all the money being made available at the time’. You sick bastards. How dare you respond as events unfold. How dare you have a dig at our absentee landlord as bankruptcy and relegation loomed.

‘I remember those posters well’ 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

If he'd have got people in to run the club we'd have not been in the mess we were

1. The stadium, without him it wouldn't have happened anytime soon.

2. The financial nightmare that almost killed us due to his initial trust in Kenwright, then his own inability to appoint a functioning board.

3. His desperation to sell to anyone, 777 Partners or whoever, and his management choices that left us selling our best and suffering first ever points deductions because of his management team.

As always, you capture it spot on.

A leader is only as good as those he trusts beneath him. He got that call massively wrong, but made the new stadium we have needed for 30 years a reality.

A crazy time of points deduction and turning to companies like 777 pPartners, it could have ended so badly. But thankfully it didn't.

For many they will have been oblivious to it, but there was a period I thought we would either lose the club or the new stadium. Points deductions, best players sold, wonga style loans, it was a classic cocktail of a demise of a football institution.

A lunatic chairman watched on by a flacid board that just took the cash and said nothing.

Everton were already an absolute train wreck with regards the way the club was being run, but the day that the sanctions started on the Russian Oligarchs was the day things really started to spiral out of control. By the good grace of god and the willpower of our fanatical fanbase, we have somehow survived.

Whatever anyone thinks of Moshiri, do yourself a favour and drive into Kirkby and look at where Bill Kenwright was prepared to take Everton Football Club. Then turn around and drive to the stadium we are moving into this August.

But our new beginning in our new home is down to him. No other owner would give up £400M — we can't forget that, and the new owners will recoup the benefits of it, with naming rights just the start.

His footballing decisions and people choices were continuously poor. He aligned himself with some absolute shisters, on and off the field. Shady loans and backers, 777 Partners et al, severely threatened the club, and we should be in no doubt took us to the brink of administration.

Similarly poor football decisions led us to PSR threatened relegation.

Legacy? Our new stadium is quite an achievement, something to make us proud. The journey alongside it has been as perilous and frightening as it gets.
The Moshiri era is certainly an eventful period in our history we will never forget.

Whether he made the decisions or they were made on behalf of Usmanov, most were brainless.

The stadium stands out as a huge nugget of gold in what was otherwise a stinking turd of an era for the club. My hunch is that, in reality, the stadium was part of a bid to raise the value of the club so that it could be sold at a huge profit. As it was/is, it ushers in a new era for the club with what appear to be respectable owners.

Good riddance to the the man. Our wonderful new stadium is not his legacy, it's a miracle that the footballing gods bestowed on Everton and its fans because we'd so valiantly endured Moshiri's reign.

I remember him saying when he hired Ancelotti that he had aimed to spend 10% of his time on Everton, but it took up a lot more than that. Well no shit given who you left in place to run the club.

He would argue that his strategy was destroyed by two huge macro-events - the Ukraine-Russian war and Covid. But Everton (and himself) were over-leveraged due to terrible recruitment and commitment to a stadium whose cost nearly dragged the club into bankruptcy. The club became a political, dysfunctional mess run by over-paid incompetents at all levels.

However...

1) Would we have the new stadium without his investment of £450M in shareholder loans?

2) Would we have been taken over if he had not agreed to convert the loans into equity?

The honest answer to those 2 questions is 'No'.

His biggest failing was not showing leadership from the start and installing his own management team.

He trusted the old guard that failed us for decades. Not all of them in name, but certainly in mentality, which was beaten into a generation of supporters.

He shouldn't have got involved in transfers, which was out of his lane, but maybe that's because he realised he couldn't trust those he gave the cheques to. His claim can be that he has left a legacy that we can be grateful for and I for one, hope he is at the Everton Stadium at the Christening.

His intent was well placed. He was just out of his depth and reckless when he did get involved.

I expect the new owners to put the right leaders in place, as they seem to be doing. They will manage from a distance as they do with their other 20 companies, but they will be monitoring closely and step in if we don't live up to expectations.

The end result is we are now in a brilliant place, think upwards, a new stadium, owners, manager and investment to come, the envy of so many other clubs.

All this happened because Moshiri was Everton's owner;this would not have happened without him investing and getting it right in the end.

I will tell you this: sometime in the future, we will sit in the new stadium and think of him with reverence despite his on-field mistakes.

I hope he is invited to the new stadium and the fans cheer his name. He deserves it and our gratitude; without him, no stadium — that's all you need to concern yourselves with.

I hope Martin @(27) your final paragraph becomes the reality in years to come true. I'd love Moshiri to be here on Sunday and get a good welcome.

Let's be honest: Sharp was welcomed back v Ipswich, so why not the man who put the money in and lost out financially in the long run?

I will always thank him for the stadium which, to be fair, is a great legacy.

I can't forget his complicity in leaving Bill to continue running the club into the ground, whilst popping up when it suited him to hire managers and find a training ground sponsor.

I also think, but don't know, that any investor knocked back by Bill would have had to deal with the stadium issue, regardless if he'd been prepared to sell and relinquish control. Fair play that he put his money up.

But I can't move past Benitez frankly for either of the clowns. If Bill had any redeeming features, he would have resigned at that point. But he didn't, did he?

Hope for Everton started when Kenwright left us although it took us some time to turn Bill's tanker round before it hit the rocks. It has been part of the rich tapestry that is the history of Everton and now in the past.

1- He came in at a difficult time and we did bring in players. were they good enough is another issue.

2- The Russian invasion of Ukraine immediately deprived the club of sponsorship money, which dented the finances of the club when a new stadium was agreed.

3- There didn't appear to be any other investors when he took over and therefore we would not have had a new stadium.

So, credit or not. To my mind yes, though his over seeing management was poor.

All the managers in his reign were all interviewed by Usmanov before any deal was done. Just like at Arsenal, Usmanov's real love, where he hoped to take over from Kronke, he gifted shares to Moshiri to help challenge Kronke. But Kronke vowed he would never sell Arsenal to Usmanov even if he was the last man on earth.

Weeks after this statementm, Moshiri sold his Arsenal shares and bought Everton. Yes, we have to thank him for the stadium, but not much else. I don't think he even liked football but he did as his boss ordered and who would argue as his boss made him a billionaire.

I also dread to think where the Club would be now if Kenwright hadn't hooked the sucker he'd been hanging on for.

The Club was kept going by the Fans, fear of loss of wages resulting in a bit of effort at Finch Farm and the Premier League who via PSR effectively took over the running of the Club.

He also allowed Kenwright & Co to continue their gravy train of self preservation and interest to the detriment of the Club.There are questions whether £400millon.existed to be lost.

He is still trying pullover PR but this time in a suit.But you can image him wearing a pullover as he talks.

That is that Moshiri gave up 400M of his own money. Like it was some sort of gift or sacrifice for the club.

He didn't give up anything. He invested money. He also messed up and lost his money. It's a completely different thing.

An amicable guy, wanting the best, but completely out of his depth, surrounded by idiots and charlatans, compounded by significant world events adversely taking their toll.

I can also hear him muttering under his breath’ I’m not a real accountant you know, I only past my part 1’s..’.

He lent the money in interest-free shareholder loans. Therefore, he was entitled to repayment of the loans.

His investment was the purchase of the club. Two separate things.

You couldn't be bothered to communicate to us in the time of our greatest anxiety. Why the fuck are you bothering now? Get off, not even at the next stop, off now. Click.

His biggest ones were employing 'experts' who failed miserably to fulfill their remit, there's a long list of them.
Players bought were not good enough that was the problem, I think it was as simple as that.

I have no animosity towards him, his intensions were good.

And Steve, perhaps a fair point but two things give them a pass. TFG have yet to make a naive move that justifies suspicion; It is early and what they've done at Roma has produced a turnaround.

I do believe that a decade from now, when our club is back in its proper position of prominence in the league and Europe, Moshiri's blunders will fade into the mists in comparison to this jewel of a stadium.

And I would also point out that as bad as his football hiring decisions were within the club, he made two brilliant hires in Dan Meis and Colin Chong to get the stadium built. I think he deserves full credit for that.

And Steve #43, I would expect our new CEO to establish a new line of communications from the owners to the fans. Kinnear provided regular interviews and updates at Leeds, and he's a talker.

As I've said before, based on his longtime pattern I expect to hear virtually nothing from Dan Friedkin. As best I can determine he has given exactly one public interview in the last ten years, to the Roma website when he first took over there.

So in terms of being able to look forward with at least some degree of optimism... we owe more to the pernicious Premier League rather than our benevolent ex-owner.

How perverse is that?

The Friedkin Group played him like a cat and mouse and were able to do so precisely because Moshiri was an incompetent owner with a lot less business savvy than he is sometimes given.

He was absolutely desperate to wipe his hands of us, the monkey on his back. An absentee landlord of the worst sort.

Made no attempts of any significance to cultivate the fans. Plazzy smile. Possibly bailed out of his mistakes by names we do not know or suspect.

And, so, although I do feel a tad ungrateful – not sure why – I agree with Scott (24) and I also think that ‘reverence' is a little OTT Martin (27). My hunch is that Moshiri will be an afterthought in a few years times not a figure of ‘reverence'.

Yep we all make many mistakes, Raymond (41), but we were not running a massive football club.

Talking about getting hoodwinked, how did Kenwright manage to think Phillip Green was a financial genius and was a godsend to Everton while screwing us right left and centre? Levi did the same to him with some transfer deals with the top one being the Dele Alli deal.

Most of these deals were with Moshiri's money – never his own – he always took great care of that.

That £450 million as Steve said was loans. These were loans from a separate Company than Blue Sky Ltd that had a unknown shareholder, that had a similar shareholdings to Moshiri.So he is bullshiting that it was all his money. It was the same with the Liver building where he tried to bullshit he was majority shareholding in the owning company. He had a 30% shareholding. 70% was owned by a Liechtenstein Company of foreign shareholders.

Even with that it is doubtful any of it was his money since since he showed no material loss in his wealth during the same period.

Anyway if he lost £450 million he has no look of it.Actually it depends were this money was got from.If is of dubious means, being able to put it into Everton gave it value.If it was valueless before this there was in fact no loss to those that imputed it into Everton.

Did Everton gain. No not really because of the loans that were taken out against the Club at punitive interest rates.

TFG bought Everton's Debt and paid it off with the approval of the Premier League.Thankful Moshiri &,Co had ran out of road and Everton managed to survive.

I would not be surprised if they managed somehow indirectly to get money out of their Everton debacle.

Kenwright pawns such as Barrett-Baxendale introduced him to Finch Farm. First step was an introduction to Ferguson and Unsworth, togged out in Everton track suits. He was given no money to buy anything and had to bring in friends free.

When he sacked the Head of Medical Services after the October International break, Finch Farm downed tools on him. The January Transfer Window was ignored and Kenwright & Co, via the back door media, whipped up as much resentment as they could against him. Benitez did not stand a chance.

Moshiri a prime example who, along with his boss, pumped millions into our club and walked away allegedly £400M worse off. Maybe buying a Premier lLeague club is a pyramid selling scam for billionaires.

That's the story as I saw it, the players turned against him, never more obvious in that hammering at home in the 2-5 defeat to Watford(?) and in Benitez's' last game in charge v Norwich away a 2-1 defeat with two terrible mistakes by Keane started the rot that day. I'd heard plans to get rid of him were in place during the week when we played Norwich.

If you've got the board, players and crowd against you there wasn't much chance of anyone providing a winning team.

I remember there being a poll in the summer before his appointment when the rumours started and gained momentum. There were 4 categories if I recall.

I was in the 3rd one; disappointed. I didn't want it but, when it happened, I thought give it a go. Much like the re-appointment of Moyes.

It started okay, but as soon as it didn't, it was always going to go toxic early. And it did.

I was at both the Brentford and Norwich away matches. The reaction from our supporters always speaks volumes and not just about the results.

At Brentford, the crowd turned at the end. Benitez wouldn't come near us. The players were cautious in how far they came over as we told them to go away (the polite version of the language used). I distinctly remember Anthony Gordon looking at us, visibly shell-shocked by the reaction of the supporters.

And then Carrow Road. A ground where I've witnessed Everton win the league. Talk about highs and lows. That was as low as it gets and there have been some low points in my time following the club I adore. That was the nail in the coffin. There was no going back. The supporters had spoken.

“Whatever anyone thinks of Moshiri, do yourself a favour and drive into Kirkby and look at where Bill Kenwright was prepared to take Everton Football Club. Then turn around and drive to the stadium we are moving into this August.”

Naill on head.

Yes, his ownership turned out to be not what we hoped for back in 2016, but his legacy is that magnificent stadium in a great location. It cost him £400M… we should never forget that.

I think he deserves a warm reception at the new stadium, which is a real masterpiece, and different to many of the modern identikit stadiums you see these days.

He was a frontman for Usmanov, which was looking okay (in a very dodgy way) until Russia invaded Ukraine.