Topic: Everton - The 777 Unflushables

[Red Beret]

I remember how the PL dragged out the Saudis fit and proper persons test. They couldn't really say no, but they knew it was a bad look to allow them in, so just stalled in the hopes the Saudis would get pissed off and walk away - which they would have done if Bozo hadn't intervened.

In Everton's case, it's been 777 stalling, as they couldn't provide the book keeping and assurances the PL requested. But I don't think that was grounds to refuse them. It's the answers a prospective owner provides that allows the PL to say yay or nay; if the buyer is slow to provide the answers I don't think there's a time limit where the PL can pull the plug.

Either way it's more bad press for 777 and more debt for Everton. With a bit of luck they'll be on -15 at the start of next season, with some tougher promoted clubs to deal with.

[Motty]

It's only my opinion but in the short term 777 going pop could actually benefit Everton. It would be an interesting case in the UK as to whether there was ever any intention for Everton to repay the loans and whether the risk of lending to Everton on an unsecured basis was a viable endeavour.

Could end up being a moot point because now they are safe from relegation. Administration might be looking like a good option for some.

I mean I know why 777 are doing all this as their ponzi scheme business plan has been explained but surely going down this road of borrowing 200m to a club in the shit added with a really big risk that they won't pass the PL test is just plain fucking daft on their part. They deserve to lose the lot for such a schoolboy error to be honest

[Motty]

If a company you owe money to goes bankrupt you still owe the money, it doesn't get written off, it just goes to their creditors.

So they are even more fucked then as I'd imagine as the creditors will go after the owed money much quicker and harder.

[Black Bull Nova]

Either way it's more bad press for 777 and more debt for Everton. With a bit of luck they'll be on -15 at the start of next season, with some tougher promoted clubs to deal with.

That old top flight team Ipswich are joining the PL in order to accompany Everton on the way down.

[oojason]

'Fresh Everton takeover fears as 777 Partners named in 16 'unpaid debt' lawsuits':-

New lawsuit against US investment firm portrayed the club as ‘the lastest shiny object of Wander’s fraudulent scheme’

www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/05/05/everton-takeover-777-partners-named-unpaid-debt-lawsuit - or in full and free, here: https://archive.ph/P4xNE

[Son of Spion]

^
It's bizarre how the Bitters aren't out marching down the streets pre-match, protesting about this potential takeover. They may be in the frying pan now, but if these somehow get the green light, then they'll be in the fires of hell. Despite that, it's radio silence from their fans. 🙃

[No666]

If a company you owe money to goes bankrupt you still owe the money, it doesn't get written off, it just goes to their creditors.

Exactly. & surely the administrators will pursue the debt immediately and with rigour. Plus no more loans to pay operating costs.

[shook]

Reeks of the 2007-09 Financial crisis, this time with some Football clubs involved. I wonder if Everton is used by these guys in derivatives trading as well.

[12C]

I can't see how Everton would be liable if 777 go under before they actually own Everton ; he can't have secured the lending against any Everton asset ? I don't know how it works.

If they do become EFC owners however I think it would be different..   

I cannot see how the Premier League can possibly approve these guys as suitable owners.

I think by pontificating for months and months, the PL has made the situation worse...if they'd just knocked them back from the start EFC wouldn't be in so deep with them, but they've strung them along for months so to speak. They've made a bad situation dire.

I really can't see any way out for them unless Moshiri starts funding again (doubtful) or they find another buyer...but how much is the club worth ?
Say Moshiri wants £600 M.... there is probably the same in debt to pay off, and £200 M to finish a stadium..

The blueshite think they're going to sell Branthwaite for £120m to Man Utd and all their problems are over..

Haven't they got an obligation to pay £27M for Beto this summer ?

To call it a mess doesn't do it justice.     

777 have borrowed £200m to lend to Everton.
What are the conditions for those loans? They don’t seem to have any collateral left at Goodison, as they hocked the last bits of land in Goodison Road and around Finch Farm the other month.

[12C]

Do correct me but

A mid table prem club is worth 3-400 million

Everton are 300m+ in debt and rising

Therefore they are worth : zero pounds plus any haircut the creditors are willing to take plus the additional value the “Everton” name has over A.N.Other prem club.

Nearer to £1b in debt, Moshiri won’t be walking away without getting some of the debt they owe him

[Dr. Beaker]

Must be like a new version of The Big Short.

[Samie]

Must be like a new version of The Big Short.

Who's playing Margot Robbie?

[[new username under construction]]

Funny how fast the went from the PL being assholes for holding up the sale to the PL should stop this sale

[Dr. Beaker]

Who's playing Margot Robbie?

The Toffee Lady.

[Garlicbread]

https://twitter.com/PhilippeAuclair/status/1787478625513865359

Multiple sources in Belgium telling us that 777 Partners's two main creditors, former owner Bruno Venanzi and shareholders of Standard's stadium have now instructed their lawyers to seek seizure of the US group's assets in the country. Full story will follow in @JosimarFotball
.

[zero zero]

An 82-page complaint filed in New York by Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP and Leadenhall Life Insurance Linked Investments Fund PLC on Friday branded 777 “a house of cards on the brink of collapse”, adding: “Everton is the latest shiny object of Wander’s fraudulent scheme.”

Stretching it a bit

[FiSh77]

Who's playing Margot Robbie?

This lovely lady

[Brian Blessed]

Who's playing Margot Robbie?

Alan Biley.

[lfc_col]

Alan Biley.

Not Booley 

[Fromola]

Will they end up getting away with their loan debt when 777 go pop?

Those loans are unsecured.

777 would have ran them into the ground so that always too good to be true.

[Red Beret]

Even if 777 manage to sell a few football clubs, it sounds as though they'll need the money for something other than buying Everton. They make Hicks and Gillett look competent.

[Eeyore]

Will they end up getting away with their loan debt when 777 go pop?

Those loans are unsecured.

777 would have ran them into the ground so that always too good to be true.

No the debt will transfer to 777's creditors.

[Brian Blessed]

Not Booley 

Haha

I think Bile also works.

[thaddeus]

I'd rather 777 Partners went bankrupt than Everton.  That said, I think both are very possible as I don't see there being a queue of prospective owners wanting to take on a club with more debt than assets and ongoing losses.

[12C]

No worries lads. I have it on good authority.
There are three other buyers waiting in the wings if 777 don’t get it, as well as Qatari interest. And Usmanov is the one behind the 777 deal, as he is somehow extracting his money in the deal.
I can only assume he is the one lending 777 the money to lend to Everton at a high interest rate, clawing back his money from the interest repayments.

[LFC_R_BOSS]

This lovely lady

Once worked with a woman who had a season ticket in the upper bullens . She was at the derby and sussed a red who’d obviously used a Everton season ticket . She punched him in the back of the head .

[Red Beret]

I'd rather 777 Partners went bankrupt than Everton.  That said, I think both are very possible as I don't see there being a queue of prospective owners wanting to take on a club with more debt than assets and ongoing losses.

I'll be happy with both. Everton seems to destroy everything it touches, so somehow bringing down this global gang of chancers with them would be quite fitting.

[Brain Potter]

The 777 Ponzi scheme is collapsing quickly now, as per this piece in the telegraph..

Everton’s prospective owners 777 face legal demand for seizure of assets in Belgium
Crisis-hit firm have been hit with two new legal claims just days after their airline collapsed and another lawsuit was launched in New York
Tom Morgan,
 SPORTS NEWS CORRESPONDENT
7 May 2024 • 7:12am
Everton’s prospective new owners have been plunged further into legal turmoil as former owners at Standard de Liège demand the seizure of millions of pounds of assets.

Crisis-hit 777 Partners have been hit with two new legal claims just days after one of the investment firm’s airlines collapsed and another major lawsuit was launched in New York.

A senior source close to talks confirmed claims had been launched by Standard’s former owner Bruno Venanzi and Immobilière du Standard, the company which owned the club’s famous Stade de Sclessin.

The two main creditors for Standard, who are part of the Miami-firm’s multi-club ownership model, are asking for the seizure of all 777’s assets in Belgium. The cases first came to light in a report on the Josimar website, but have been independently verified by Telegraph Sport. A spokesman for 777 Partners declined to comment.

Anger in Belgian football is mounting at 777, with national newspaper Le Soir reporting wages are also overdue to Standard’s players. 777 are alleged in legal papers to have also defaulted on two tranches of payment owed to Venanzi as well as other former club shareholders, thought to include former Tottenham player Nacer Chadli.

Assets being demanded in the new claims include the shares which Venanzi gave up in 2022 as well as the stadium, worth an estimated £6 million. In their latest accounts, Standard Liège posted €20 million (£17.1 million) losses for the 2022-23 season under 777 Partners, which had promised to reduce the debt burden.

Standard were also temporarily hit with transfer bans after the club failed to pay transfer fees, bonuses, VAT and social insurance contributions. Hertha Berlin, Brazil’s Vasco da Gama, France’s Red Star and Italy’s Genoa are other clubs in its portfolio.

The company first struck a deal to buy Everton last September, but doubt is now mounting that the Premier League can provide approval over the coming weeks.

London asset manager Leadenhall Capital is also seeking damages after accusing 777 and co-founder Josh Wander of pledging more than $350 million (£278 million) in assets that “either did not exist, were not actually owned by Wander’s entities, or had already been pledged to another lender”. Within an 82-page New York legal claim, Leadenhall allege “777 Partners and its affiliates have been named in no less than sixteen lawsuits generally concerning unpaid debts and collectively demanding more than $130 million (£103 million)”. Many of the cases referenced were filed in recent months.

When asked about the 16 cases, a spokesman for 777 declined to comment again on Sunday but the company has previously told Telegraph Sport that some cases against the group had been resolved.

Last week, 777 Partners made a last-minute payment of around £16 million towards working capital at the Premier League side, to ease alarm shortly after one of its airlines Bonza abruptly ceased flying.

[A Red Abroad]

[fridgepants]

There was a thread which I can't find now by a journalist who reports on finances and football - Martin Calladine, maybe? - which had extracts from court papers stating that 777's intention with Everton (and Standard Liege) was to buy up the club, use them to increase interest in their other businesses through partnerships, then 'flip them for a profit'. Basically Homes Under The Hammer-ing them.

[JRed]

Have 777only got into trouble after agreeing to buy Everton?

[JC the Messiah]

Have 777only got into trouble after agreeing to buy Everton?

When Everton touches you...

[Black Bull Nova]

Branthwaite has already got his price labelled glued on, that should pay the cleaners wages through to August.

[DonkeyWan]

Have 777only got into trouble after agreeing to buy Everton?

No, the investigations pre-dated their attempt to buy them. In fact it was the problems elswhere that encouraged their interest in the first place. They wanted to buy and then use their new acquisition to borrow to pay off debt. As long as Everton didn't get relegated they could borrow, finish stadium, asset strip, sell. Even that was highly optimistic.

[JRed]

No, the investigations pre-dated their attempt to buy them. In fact it was the problems elswhere that encouraged their interest in the first place. They wanted to buy and then use their new acquisition to borrow to pay off debt. As long as Everton didn't get relegated they could borrow, finish stadium, asset strip, sell. Even that was highly optimistic.

I thought it might’ve been the Curse of the Bitters that had done for 777. Seems they are well suited to each other.

[Crosby Nick]

I feel dirty, just been  served some kind of Everton as on Facebook.

You can now buy a mug that says You lost the league at Goodison Park.

One of the first comments: Be nice for you lot to lift a cup

[kaesarsosei]

Can someone ELI5 what is going on? Is this a fair summary?

Everton are skint and on the verge of going bust because of nearly a decade of financial mismanagement
A company Sport 777 are trying to buy/"save" Everton
That company themselves are on the verge of going bust?
What do they get out of this even if they do buy Everton?
If they go bust first, what is going to happen to Everton?
If 777 do buy Everton, and then both go bust, what happens?
If Everton are already in dire financial straits, what do 777 Sport gain from it?

All a bit baffling to me.

[swoopy]

Walking up Scotland Road on Sunday as our team bus came past. One lone blue voice also walking up the road started shouting as loud as he could - "YOU LOST THE LEAGUE, AT GOODISON PARK" at the soundproofed bus. Bet he felt dead made up inside. Probably went home to tell the family too.

[JRed]

Walking up Scotland Road on Sunday as our team bus came past. One lone blue voice also walking up the road started shouting as loud as he could - "YOU LOST THE LEAGUE, AT GOODISON PARK" at the soundproofed bus. Bet he felt dead made up inside. Probably went home to tell the family too.

The highlight of their season and the highlight of his year shouting it at the bus.

[thaddeus]

Can someone ELI5 what is going on? Is this a fair summary?

Everton are skint and on the verge of going bust because of nearly a decade of financial mismanagement
A company Sport 777 are trying to buy/"save" Everton
That company themselves are on the verge of going bust?
What do they get out of this even if they do buy Everton?
If they go bust first, what is going to happen to Everton?
If 777 do buy Everton, and then both go bust, what happens?
If Everton are already in dire financial straits, what do 777 Sport gain from it?

All a bit baffling to me.

Yes, it's pretty much a race between Everton FC and 777 Partners to see which one is bankrupt first.

If 777 Partners go bust first then the £200m+ that Everton owe them would instead be owed to the entities that 777 Partners have borrowed from.  Unfortunately for Everton the debt wouldn't just vanish.

I believe 777 Partners primary interest in Everton is as an asset against which to borrow more money to then buy more assets whilst also paying down some of the debt on previously purchased assets.  In the longer term they would need to take a lot of money out of Everton or flip them for a profit to a new buyer, although the latter seems highly unlikely with the current state of Everton's finances.

The Premier League have probably saved Everton from an excruciatingly drawn out death at the hands of 777 Partners.  They are likely to go into administration if a new buyer isn't found but that would at least present them with something like a clean slate and the hope of attracting a white knight owner with better intentions.