LONDON 10 OCTOBER- EBM WEEKEND READ By Nick Staunton
Less than two years ago, the Friedkin Group rescued Everton. The club had been docked points for breaching spending rules, was carrying debts that its previous owner, Farhad Moshiri, could no longer comfortably support, and had seen a proposed takeover by American investment firm 777 Partners collapse. Dan Friedkin, a Texan billionaire whose fortune came from car distribution, acquired Moshiri’s 94.1% stake in December 2024, refinanced the club’s debts and oversaw Everton’s move from Goodison Park to the new Hill Dickinson Stadium on Liverpool’s waterfront.
This week, Friedkin put Everton up for sale. The group has appointed investment bank Moelis and says that, with stability restored, “the time is right to consider the next chapter”. The announcement illustrates a broader transformation in English football. Clubs once owned for decades by local families or wealthy individuals with a personal attachment to the game are increasingly being treated as investment assets: businesses to acquire, restructure, grow in value and eventually sell. American investors are at the centre of that shift, and Friedkin’s approach offers a revealing example of how the model works.
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The strategy follows the logic of private equity: buy an undervalued business, improve its financial position and prospects, then sell it at a profit. A club in financial difficulty may offer a buyer greater negotiating leverage, particularly when its owner needs an exit. The new investor can refinance debt, address unsustainable costs, resolve outstanding disputes and invest in assets capable of generating additional revenue.
For football clubs, the stadium is particularly important. Under the Premier League’s financial rules, spending capacity is closely linked to revenue. A modern, larger ground can increase matchday income, hospitality sales and commercial opportunities, strengthening the financial foundations of the business. Everton’s new stadium is therefore more than a new home for its supporters: it is a central part of the club’s commercial proposition.
Friedkin is no longer selling the Everton that required an urgent financial rescue. He is offering prospective buyers a club with a new waterfront stadium, a restructured financial position and the potential to grow its revenues. The distinction matters because football club valuations increasingly depend on what an investor believes the business could become, rather than simply its current performance on the pitch.
How the Americans Arrived
American ownership of English football began to gather momentum with Malcolm Glazer’s acquisition of Manchester United in 2005. The Glazer family bought the club for approximately £790m, financing much of the transaction through borrowing that placed substantial debt obligations on United. Supporters have criticised the arrangement for years, arguing that money used to service acquisition debt could otherwise have supported the club.
The takeover demonstrated that an English football institution could be acquired and managed as a financial investment. It also exposed the tension between an owner’s financial objectives and supporters’ expectations of stewardship.
Fenway Sports Group pursued a different approach at Liverpool. After acquiring the club for approximately £300m in 2010, it invested in the squad, developed the club’s commercial operations and expanded Anfield. In 2021, it sold a minority stake to US investment firm RedBird at a valuation substantially above its original purchase price. Rather than selling Liverpool outright, FSG demonstrated how an owner could realise part of an investment’s growing value while retaining control.
Chelsea illustrated the scale of capital now involved. Following the UK government’s sanctions on Roman Abramovich, a consortium led by Todd Boehly and the private equity firm Clearlake acquired the club in 2022 in a transaction valued at approximately £2.5bn. The deal set a new benchmark for the price investors were prepared to pay for a major football club.
The attraction is straightforward. The Premier League is the world’s leading domestic football competition by global commercial reach, supported by enormous domestic and international broadcasting revenues. Its domestic rights deal is worth approximately £6.7bn over four years, with international rights adding billions more. As the battle over streaming rights intensifies, investors are competing for access to a business with global audiences, recurring income and substantial commercial potential.
American investors accustomed to the NFL and NBA, where closed leagues provide greater certainty over membership, see English football as a different but potentially attractive proposition. Promotion and relegation introduce risks absent from those American competitions, but the Premier League’s worldwide following gives successful clubs an international platform that few sports properties can match.
Players as Assets
The investment model has also changed how clubs think about their squads. Teams that once measured success primarily through trophies increasingly have to consider the financial value of their players as well. Footballers are now assets that can be bought, developed and sold, with transfer fees and contract accounting playing a significant role in how clubs manage their finances.
Transfer fees are generally amortised over a player’s contract, while profits from player sales can improve a club’s reported financial position. Academy graduates can be particularly valuable because the costs of developing them may be much lower than the proceeds from a major transfer. Buying promising young players, improving their performance and selling them at a premium can therefore help a club generate revenue and maintain its capacity to invest.
For an owner planning an eventual exit, a squad of talented, relatively young players can strengthen the appeal to the next buyer. That does not guarantee sporting success, but it can improve the investment case. It also helps explain why major football club sales increasingly involve investment banks, detailed financial models and extensive due diligence rather than the informal negotiations associated with traditional takeovers.
The Owner With Two Clubs
Friedkin also owns Roma, which he acquired in 2020 and which has plans for a new stadium in the Italian capital. Multi-club ownership has become increasingly common, with City Football Group and Red Bull among the best-known examples.
The model can create opportunities to share scouting networks, develop young players across different competitions and coordinate commercial operations. But it also raises questions about competing priorities. An owner with several clubs must divide capital, management attention and strategic resources, potentially creating tensions between the interests of individual teams.
Critics of Friedkin’s stewardship have questioned whether Roma has received greater attention than Everton, particularly amid concerns about Everton’s transfer activity. For supporters, the issue is not simply whether an owner can operate several clubs efficiently. It is whether their club remains a central priority rather than one asset within a wider portfolio.
The Next Buyers
The identity of Everton’s next owner will help determine what comes next. Potential investors in Premier League clubs include American private equity firms, specialist sports funds and Gulf sovereign wealth funds, which have already established significant positions in European football. Their motivations can range from financial returns and international brand-building to broader economic and strategic objectives.
The regulatory environment is also changing. England’s independent football regulator has been established to oversee the financial sustainability of clubs and strengthen the owners’ and directors’ test. Meanwhile, disputes surrounding Manchester City have highlighted the scrutiny that can accompany football club financing and commercial arrangements. The club has denied wrongdoing in relation to the Premier League charges, and the relevant legal proceedings must be distinguished from any allegations that have not been established.
Investors are also operating in a different financial climate. As the era of cheap money comes to an end, higher borrowing costs can make leveraged acquisitions more expensive and reduce the returns available to buyers. Yet football remains attractive to investors seeking assets with international audiences and potentially resilient commercial income.
The Price of Loyalty
Friedkin’s decision to explore a sale reflects the logic of the investment model. He acquired a troubled club, refinanced its debts and brought a major stadium project to completion. With Everton’s commercial prospects changed, he can now test what a new buyer might pay. Whether the transaction ultimately delivers the expected return will depend on the price, the club’s financial position and the interest generated by prospective purchasers.
But football clubs are not ordinary companies. Their supporters do not simply switch to a competitor when they dislike a change of ownership. Loyalty is rooted in family, place, history and identity — precisely the qualities that make clubs commercially powerful, but also create obligations that do not always fit neatly into an investment timetable.
Everton’s next owner will inherit more than a stadium and a squad. They will inherit a community that has supported the club through relegation battles, financial uncertainty and the departure from Goodison Park. Supporters will want investment, ambition and stability, not merely another change of hands.
The central question is whether the next buyer sees Everton as a long-term institution to build or an asset to improve before selling again. The investment model rewards owners who can increase value. The challenge for football is ensuring that the pursuit of that value does not come at the expense of the people who give the clubs their meaning.
