Ryan Friedkin is expected to take frontline responsibility for Everton if the Friedkin Group complete a deal to acquire Farhad Moshiri’s majority stake.
i understands that a deal remains on track for the group – owned and run by Texan billionaire Dan Friedkin – to take over Everton with exclusivity expected to be granted by Moshiri “imminently”, according to a source close to the deal.
And sources have told i that Friedkin’s 34-year-old son Ryan, who is a huge fan of the Premier League, could take a prominent role in the transformation of Everton.
Fans can expect substantial infrastructure investment – with the academy, training ground and women’s team benefiting hugely from their ownership at Roma – and team strengthening but, perhaps crucially, a return to financial stability and more certainty around the team ahead of the move to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in just over a year.
The Friedkins have plunged an estimated $1bn into Roma in four years, repairing the club’s finances and – crucially – dragging them back into financial fair play compliance over four years. They modernised the club by appointing their first sporting director, revenues improved by 17 per cent last season and there has been a Europa Conference League victory on their watch. In the debit column they have failed to land Champions League football.
“They are very serious people and for those who want to get the club back onto a more solid footing this looks like good news for Everton,” an insider told i.
While there has been shock in Rome that the Friedkins have moved for the Toffees their desire to buy an English club is nothing new.
i can reveal that the Friedkin Group, who have owned Roma since 2020, have previously explored the possibility of buying West Ham and at least one Championship club. Ryan is a Chelsea fan but his allegiances would “obviously shift” if terms can be agreed on a deal which would bring another club under American control.
Expect to see him and film tycoon father Dan – who is also a qualified pilot who flew marquee hires Jose Mourinho and Romelu Lukaku to Rome on a private plane after completing deals for both – on the ground “from day one”.
“If they manage to do this deal, I suspect they will be ‘all in’. They are very supportive of people at Roma. They are not perfect, they have made mistakes there but this would be a serious investment,” an insider says.
Deal makers are watching events unfold with fascination. One who spoke to i pointed out that if acquiring Everton was with the intention of creating a multi-club model they could run into problems with whichever club took on more junior status given the proud heritage of both. Uefa rules would currently prohibit both clubs from playing in European competition at the same time, although Everton would be thankful for merely avoiding another brush with relegation in the short-term.
“I think the Friedkins are the perfect owners for the Premier League,” Andy Mattioli, a journalist with Roma Press who has seen firsthand the transformation at the Stadio Olimpico, tells i.
“In the Premier League it is actions rather than words from owners that matter, which is different from Serie A. In England it is how much you spend, what you do with those resources, that matter.
“In Italy there is a tendency for owners to talk a lot but their first statement said ‘You will not hear from us unless we want you to hear from us’.
“And they have followed those words up with investment – in Jose Mourinho, in bringing in Paolo Dybala and also Romelu Lukaku.”
Insiders tell i that despite their tendency to shy away from public utterances they will be in tune with fan sentiment at Everton and it is likely to drive some of their decisions. It is understood they regularly monitor the press and social media to see what supporters are saying about them.
“Of course there is nervousness and uncertainty at Roma about what this might mean for our club,” Mattioli says.
“But they have read the room well at the same time. There have been 57 consecutive sellouts at Stadio Olimpico and they have sold 25,000 season tickets this summer, which was not the case when they took over.”
For Everton supporters fed a diet of uncertainty over the last 18 months, the prospect of a Friedkin takeover feels like a buyout that can return optimism about the future.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/8yKrovi
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