Speaking exclusively with Everton News, football finance expert Kieran Maguire has shed light on the situation surrounding 777 loans.
Everton‘s prospective new owners 777 Partners have been under serious flak in recent weeks as news of their lawsuits becomes common.
Amid these, 777 have been lending money to Everton which comes before their takeover has even been ratified.
This is something that could lead to serious complications and which could become a messy situation.
To gain some extra insight into these loans, we spoke with football finance expert and The Price of Football author, Kieran Maguire.
Kieran Maguire on 777 Partners loans
Speaking to us on Tuesday, Maguire expressed his concern over Everton loaning money from 777.
He explained: “777 have lent Everton somewhere between £60m and £190m if stories are true. The basis for those loans is unknown. They could be unsecured, which means that 777 themselves are quite a long way down the queue should anything untoward happen to Everton, but at the same time it’s meant that the club has become increasingly reliant on 777 to pay the operational bills, the wages, the running costs of the club on a month to month basis, and also the ongoing payments due in respect of Bramley-Moore Dock.”
Continuing he added that he thinks this could be a devious strategy from 777.
“This could be part of a strategy by 777 to effectively make Everton look like a poisonous potential acquisition by anybody else because who wants to acquire a new business which has thick end of £200m worth of debt from somebody who might demand it back immediately?”
Everton therefore could be in trouble if 777 are to fail in their bid to acquire the Goodison Park club.
Maguire warns of ‘messy’ situation
Continuing, Maguire also explained what might happen should the takeover fall through.
“So it’s a very complex situation. If the Premier League rejects the takeover I suspect 777 would appeal, and if that appeal then fails one wouldn’t like to think what they would then try to do in respect of the money that they’ve advanced to Everton.
“The club doesn’t have the cash to repay them, so how things would go from there would become incredibly messy.”
This will no doubt be a fear in the minds of many Everton supporters and if it’s a concern that an expert like Maguire has, then it’s definitely something that needs to be considered.
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