Stefan Borson: Everton are throwing their weight behind Man City

Everton are likely backing Manchester City’s associated party transactions (APT) case after the club previously benefitted from sponsorship deals linked to Alisher Usmanov.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider some of the sponsorship deals the Russian businessman helped push through while he was associated with the Merseysiders wouldn’t be possible now due to the stringent rules.

Man City have pursued legal action against the Premier League regarding the APT rules currently in place, with the club claiming the regulations are “unlawful”.

If the rules weren’t in place, clubs could agree sponsorship deals as high as they wanted with no challenge, increasing the amount they could spend under the profit and sustainability rules (PSR).

It comes as Farhad Moshiri is still looking to sell his 94.1 per cent stake in Everton after 777 Partners failed to get its takeover bid over the line despite agreeing a £500million deal last September.

Football Insider revealed on 9 June that US investors are now in hot pursuit of a deal to take over the Merseysiders.

Everton backing Man City to help takeover bid

Borson revealed scrapping the APT rules would allow a potential new owner to potentially pump more money into Everton without being bound by the regulations.

“Historically, Everton have benefitted greatly from sponsorships from people like Usmanov’s vehicle USM,” Borson told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“Over the years, USM has been a related party, but then ceased to be a related party.

“At the point that it ceased to be a related party, those deals with USM fell out of the net of the Premier League until the associated party rules came in.

“Now the associated party rules are in play, some of those deals would be prevented or need to be shown to be fair value under the stringent rules.

“But most importantly for Everton is that they are up for sale. For the clubs who are trying to sell themselves, you want as little regulation as possible for a club that’s for sale because they want to be able to make an impact if they were purchased.

“Clearly, if you can invest in a club that you buy, it makes it a more interesting proposition.”

In other news, Everton now risk losing star man for nothing.

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