Everton set for change of fortune in takeoverOliver Kay
Everton are expected to become the next Barclays Premier League club to fall under Arab ownership after it emerged that a Middle Eastern consortium is favourite to buy the club. An Indian investor is also understood to have registered an interest in the Merseyside club, but the more advanced bid is from an investment group in an Arab state that is preparing to make an official bid within the next fortnight.
Bill Kenwright, the Everton chairman, has been looking for outside investment for the past three years, conscious he does not have the wealth to enable his club to compete at the top end of the transfer market and he is confident his search is close to fruition.
Kenwright is being advised by Keith Harris, the leading football financier, who sat alongside him at Goodison Park yesterday when Everton drew 2-2 with Newcastle United. The Tyneside club have also enlisted Harris’s services as Mike Ashley, their chairman, looks to offload his stake as soon as possible. Ashley is determined to find a buyer for Newcastle as a matter of urgency, but the Everton takeover is being handled more cautiously, with Kenwright eager to find the right individual or group of individuals to take the club forward.
A number of conference calls have been held with representatives of potential investors, with Sir Philip Green, the billionaire British businessman, also offering Kenwright advice, as he has done on an increasingly regular, although informal, basis in recent months.
Reports yesterday suggested that Kenwright hoped to have a deal completed by the new year, allowing David Moyes, the Everton manager, significant funds to strengthen his squad during the January transfer window. However, the expectation at Goodison Park is that a deal could go through next month, if discussions continue to progress as they have done.
In the meantime, Moyes is close to signing a new long-term contract, with his future unaffected by the expected change in ownership.
