The Friedkin Group has reached agreement to purchase Farhad Moshiri’s majority stake in Everton.
The group, led by the American billionaire Dan Friedkin, had entered a period of exclusivity to negotiate a possible purchase in June, before Everton in July said that no deal would be struck between the parties.
John Textor, who has a 45 per cent share in Crystal Palace, had then appeared to be in the frame, but a statement from Everton on Monday read: “Blue Heaven Holdings and The Friedkin Group confirm that they have reached agreement over the terms of the sale of Blue Heaven Holdings’ majority stake in Everton Football Club.
“The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, including from the Premier League, the Football Association, and the Financial Conduct Authority.”
A spokesperson for The Friedkin Group said: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement to become custodians of this iconic football club.
“We are focused on securing the necessary approvals to complete the transaction. We look forward to providing stability to the club, and sharing our vision for its future, including the completion of the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.”
The Friedkin Group, holder of a controlling stake in Serie A side Roma, have been a lender to Everton, with an injection of £200million triggering its exclusivity period in the summer.
Prior to that, a deal for Miami-based firm 777 Partners to take over the Toffees had been agreed in September 2023 before collapsing in May.
After the July announcement that the Friedkin Group would not be progressing with a purchase, Everton had entered talks with Textor, who would have had to offload his stake in their Premier League rivals Palace.
And two weeks ago the American had expressed his confidence that everything could be completed before his exclusivity agreement expired.
But Everton played down those comments, stressing that “there remains some work to be done”, and it is now Friedkin that is set to take control.
The news comes with Sean Dyche’s team lying 19th in the league after six games of the season, having only claimed their first point of the campaign with Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Leicester.
They finished 15th in 2023-24, a season during which they were twice docked points for breaching profit and sustainability rules.
Everton are due to move from their Goodison Park home to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in time for the start of the 2025-26 campaign.
The Friedkin Group stressed the Everton deal would not affect their commitment to Roma.
A statement on the Serie A side’s website from Dan and Ryan Friedkin read: “The potential addition of Everton to our portfolio does not alter our focus on AS Roma.
“If anything, the multi-club symbiosis will only help Roma.
“Each club in our portfolio operates independently and AS Roma remains at the heart of our football ambitions.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here