In Dan Friedkin’s multi-club operation, it appears that Everton are playing second fiddle to AS Roma.
The Friedkin Group’s financial commitment to Everton cannot be questioned. Across clearing debts, paying Farhad Moshiri a token fee for his shares and subsequent capital injections, they are already around £450m deep into the project.
On the pitch, Everton’s season ended with a whimper and a 14th-place Premier League finish when, at one stage, the Champions League was talked about, albeit in whispers, on Merseyside. But zoom out on the graph and the picture is – broadly – positive.
The costs of building the Hill Dickinson Stadium have been favourably refinanced, the stadium itself is starting to feel like home, and the replacement of PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules) with SCR (Squad Cost Ratio) at Premier League level should work in Everton’s favour.
That was a disgraceful performance from Everton… something has to change! 😤
And from Friedkin’s perspective specifically, he now has a foothold in football’s super league in a club with a rich history, loyal fans and a best-in-class infrastructure asset with the stadium.
Why, then, has the man himself not yet visited Everton?
Admittedly, Friedkin has always kept a low profile. Indeed, you have to do a fair bit of digging online to find out what the billionaire actually sounds like. Even then, it is usually an interview about his career in Hollywood. But at Roma, he has been more of a presence.
Today, it emerged that Friedkin had personally phoned manager Gian Piero Gasperini to congratulate him on Roma’s 3rd-place finish in Serie A and a return to the Champions League next season.
Now, on an emotional level, one would think that Friedkin would want to see the English club he has invested so much money in in the flesh. But the financial distribution figures at Roma and Everton from their respective leagues make his apparent detachment all the more puzzling.
As relayed by The Athletic, Everton will bank around £147.7m for finishing 14th in the Premier League.
Analysis conducted by Everton News meanwhile estimates that Roma will get about £56m for finishing 3rd in Serie A.
Granted, there is a lot more to a football club and an investment than prize money and profit margins, but the chasm between the two leagues financially does cast Friedkin’s failure to turn up at the Hill Dickinson Stadium at all in his first full season in sharper focus.
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