American billionaire John Textor has reportedly entered into a period of exclusivity with Farhad Moshiri as he bids to complete a takeover of Everton FC.
According to David Ornstein of The Athletic, Textor has signed an agreement with both the Club and its Anglo-Iranian owner, although a spokesman for Moshiri declined to comment when contacted by the publication which is now owned by The New York Times.
Alan Myers of Sky Sports News says that according to his sources, the two parties have a “working dialogue” but that talks are at the “formative stage”.
Any deal hinges, however, on Textor and his Eagle Football selling their 45% stake in Crystal Palace, both in time to complete a buyout of Everton and for the price he is seeking. Premier League rules prohibit any one investor to own more than 9.9% of another club.
But the period of exclusivity allows him to follow up on the bid he resurrected, and delve a little further into the Everton data room, which is where The Friedkin Group’s takeover bid came undone last month.
Dan Friedkin and his Texas-based firm pulled out of a bid to buy the Blues citing serious concerns over the roughly £200m the Club owes to another former bidder, 777 Partners, who are embroiled in a civil case in a New York Superior Court charged with fraud by London-based Leadenhall Capital Partners.
The resolution of that case and the clearing of that debt is seen by observers as a significant hurdle that any takeover candidate would need to see cleared before they could comfortably proceed with a takeover of Everton, through Textor has remained keen despite seeing all three of 777, TFG and MSP Sports Capital all fail to follow through for varying reasons.
Reports that Friedkin could still be interested in taking a minority 30% stake, perhaps in concert with Textor, have been played down.
In an interview last weekend, Textor was quoted as saying: “I am still an owner in Palace – I would have to clear out of that before I could buy anything else. We have made clear our interest in having a majority interest in a UK club, whether it is Championship or Premier League.
“Yes, we are looking at Everton along with everybody else. I would have to rationalise my interest in Palace before I could close anything.
“I am an Anglophile when it comes to football. When I see these legendary teams come along, some in the Premier League, some in the Championship, clubs that I grew up with, they have an appeal. They also have an appeal to our business model because if I follow these great teams, then so do athletes around the world.”