As is often the case, the arrival of news so eagerly anticipated and prayed for, campaigned for, for so long and with so many people having committed huge resources, particularly time and effort in getting the solution we sought, the news itself is temporarily at least, almost anti-climatic.
Premier League Statement
The Premier League Board has approved The Friedkin Group’s 98.8 per cent acquisition of Everton Football Club, following the completion of the League’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test.
Having been agreed by the Board, the takeover has now been ratified by an Independent Oversight Panel.
The club’s new owners and directors have also signed the Premier League’s Owners’ Charter. Link
The Premier League now awaits confirmation of the satisfactory completion of the transaction.
– Ends
There is so much to go into regarding the future of Everton under the Friedkin Group and that will be analysed in due course.
But today is a day for thinking of what so many Evertonians and others have done to keep the club going, to hold Moshiri to account and ultimately achieve the financial security and professional management so desperately needed for decades.
The list of people involved in bringing Everton’s difficulties to light, in maintaining pressure on the former owner Farhad Moshiri, his directors and executives is long, lengthy but inspiring.
Evertonians and others, ordinary fans, journalists, fan media, professional advisors, people with the ability to finance the club when we so, so nearly went to the wall, none of them will necessarily want public recognition for what they did. They did it for the love of our club, they did it as a professional duty (in the case of journalists) and for some as a result of a sense of duty. A sense of duty to the hundreds of thousands of Evertonians past and present. The 10’s of millions that attended games at Goodison, the former players, the architects of the Football League, and even the Premier League. For the hundreds of thousands of future Evertonians. For the game itself.
Thankfully, in the cold light of day, Everton was too big a club to be ignored, to be left to rot as has happened so sadly to much smaller, less storied (but no less worthy) clubs.
With the support of so many, we got through the crises created by the appalling mismanagement of our club. Mismanagement that lasted for decades but accelerated under the madness of the Moshiri reign.
The time for analysis of the past, and of course, expectations for the future will come in the days ahead. Today, in my mind at least, is for thanking all those that stood tall when called upon and ensured that the club survived long enough to be passed to appropriate, future custodians.
Thank you everyone who contributed to that effort.