Everton's successful start to the season might make you wonder what all the fuss was about. After demonstrations at Goodison Park at the direction the club have been heading in under the chairman, Bill Kenwright, the Toffees have picked up more points per game than anyone outside the Premier League top four.
However, off the pitch matters are indeed far less rosy: Digger can reveal that Everton have forward-sold their central Premier League broadcast income not only for this season but for the 2012-13 campaign as well.
As Kenwright has privately admitted, Everton's prior lenders, Barclays Bank and Investec, are not prepared to extend their credit lines to his club. But that has not prevented Everton from accessing credit.
Last month a mortgage deed was signed with Vibrac Corporation, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. As such it is impossible to determine who the lender is and whether it has any links in football – although it must be stressed that in common with all such assignments of central funds, it has been approved by the Premier League.
The loan is a one-year facility for £14m, replacing a mortgage agreed with Investec 12 months previously, in which this season's central funds were signed over to the bank.
That Investec loan was a departure from the terms of the 2009 agreement with Barclays, in which only the same season's Premier League funds were borrowed against to assist with cashflow.
To sell future seasons' income is intrinsically more risky, both for the lender and the mortgager. There can be no guarantees that Everton will even be in the Premier League next season, and although there has been no disclosure of the interest-rate terms, that risk is normally priced into what yield the creditor must pay, making the rate more expensive.
Everton are insouciant about the deal, insisting that even if the worst happens they could cover it from the bumper parachute payments from the Premier League. But that income is meant as a relegation cushion, not to cover cashflow difficulties.
