Newcastle United owners the Saudi Public Investment Fund could pull off a huge business deal that changes everything for soon-to-be new Everton owner Dan Friedkin.
Friedkin has entered into exclusive talks with British-Iranian billionaire Farhad Moshiri to iron out the finer points of a deal that is expected to be worth around £800m.
It is widely anticipated that, in contrast to previous takeover suitors 777 Partners, Friedkin’s acquisition will be given the green light by the Premier League without any issue.
Everton would not be the sports and media investors firs venture into the world of football – he bought Italian giants Roma for £500m in 2020.
At present, UEFA is actively clamping down on clubs under the same ownership umbrella from competing in the same European competition.
UEFA announced last week that Man City and Man United can play in the same competitions as sister clubs Girona and Nice, but only on the condition that the subsidiary clubs are placed in a blind trust.
In any case, it is believed that this is only a temporary reprieve and that more permanent measures will be introduced by UEFA from 2025-26.
While European qualification is a distant possibility for Everton presently, Friedkin’s reported prioritisation of Roma in a multi-club model would place an upper limit on the Toffees’ ambitions.
However, that issue could be resolved in one fell swoop. Enter, Newcastle owners PIF.
PIF in bid to buy Roma
As reported by the likes of Forbes earlier this year, PIF have submitted a £768m deal to buy Roma from Friedkin.
That offer was lodged before Friedkin emerged as a contender to buy Everton, so naturally it was not linked to the Merseyside club or potential issues with multi-club ownership.
There has been no update on the status of the bid, which is also believed to include around £250m of funds for a new Roma stadium, which would be designed by Bramley Moore Dock architect Dan Meis.
If Friedkin accepted PIF’s offer, it would simultaneously resolve any issues around UEFA’s multi-club crackdown and also provide Friedkin with a huge windfall that could potentially be reinvested in Everton.
There is no saying for certain whether the 59-year-old would choose to do that, but it would make financial sense to pay off the Everton’s debts of £390m rather than continue to pay interest on them.
Given that a chunk of that debt is secured against Everton’s property assets, it could also theoretically open the door for Friedkin to engineer a style PSR workaround by selling assets to himself, à la Chelsea.
Will Everton be able to spend under Friedkin?
The Toffees appear to have dodged a PSR breach for the three-year monitoring period up to 2023-24.
However, they are still anchored by a loss of £115m in 2022-23 and an expected deficit of around £60m for 2023-24, which will be revealed when the club releases their accounts for the season.
Premier League clubs are allowed to lose £105m over a rolling three-year period under Profit and Sustainability Rules, meaning that Everton – on paper – would need to record a £50m profit to comply.
However, that does not take into account deductible costs such as infrastructure spending and depreciation.
Everton will still likely need to record a profit on player sales in order to comply in 2024-25, but the situation is not as dire as it has been in previous years.
