64 2GM Tuesday March 15 2022 | the times
SportFootball
Relegation would be a financial calami-
ty for Everton, with the club already
facing the biggest losses over the past
three years of any team in English foot-
ball.
Everton are one place above the rele-
gation zone — ahead of 18th-placed
Watford only on goal difference —
having lost their past four matches, and
within the next two weeks they are
expected to announce tens of millions
of pounds in losses from last season, to
add to the £252 million lost over the
previous two seasons. The nearest
clubs in terms of net losses for the 2018-
19 and 2019-20 seasons combined were
Southampton (£117 million) and Man-
chester City (£115 million).
Falling into the Sky Bet Champion-
ship would result in Everton’s revenues
almost halving overnight: their broad-
cast income would drop by about
£80 million, even with about £40 mil-
lion of parachute payments softening
the blow, as most Championship clubs
earn a maximum of £8 million from
television payments.
a Championship environment and the
only way to continue would be to sell
players, and they certainly have some
that would attract interest.
“The club have invested a lot in talent
and that comes at a cost, which has
contributed to their losses. Their wages
are 89 per cent of [their] revenue, and
that is well above the red line.”
Everton are understood to have
clauses in many of their players’ con-
tracts that would reduce their wages
substantially if the club were to beThe Women’s FA Cup prize fund has
increased almost tenfold to £3 million a
year after the FA was heavily criticised
over the disparity in prize money
compared with the men’s game.
Chelsea Women earned just £25,000
in beating Arsenal in the 2020-21 final,
while Leicester City won £1.8 million
after beating Chelsea in the men’s final.
Alison McGovern, the Wirral South
MP, had said in a parliamentary debate
that there was “absolutely no objective
justification for that incredible
disparity in prize money”.
The present total prize pot for the
women’s competition is about
£309,000, with the new £3 million fund
to be introduced for the 2022-23 season.
The FA announced “a disproportionate
amount” of this fund will be invested
into the early rounds — important for
smaller clubs who have previously lost
money for competing, unlike in the
men’s competition where revenue from
a cup run can fund entire seasons.T
odd Boehly’s Eldridge
Industries firm has invested in
media and real estate, but his
involvement in sport gives the best
indicator of the kind of effect he
might have at Chelsea, whom he
reportedly tried to buy for
£2.2 billion in 2019.
Boehly, 46, was part of a group
who beat the Arsenal owner Stan
Kroenke to the £1.3 billion purchase
of the Major League Baseball team
the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, a
record fee for a sports franchise at
the time. He also bought a 27 per
cent stake in LA Lakers last year.
Boehly’s grandparents emigrated
from Germany and he was a
talented schoolboy wrestler. He
went to college in Virginia, before
studying at the London School of
Economics. He is based in
Connecticut and is married with
three sons: Nick, Zach and Clay.
Jonathan Goldstein, the chief
executive and founder of the
investment firm Cain International,
grew up supporting Tottenham
Hotspur. He owns a boot signed by
Harry Kane, which he won in a
charity auction.
Reports have suggested
Goldstein’s property expertise could
be a boon for Chelsea if they are to
upgrade Stamford Bridge or build a
new home ground. His Cain
International group is responsible
for about £8.3 billion worth of assets,
including hotels such as the Waldorf
Astoria Beverly Hills in California.
London-born Goldstein, who
qualified as a solicitor in 1988,
considered making an offer for
Tottenham in 2014 through Cain.
There is no record of his age, but the
father of four is thought to be about- His wife, Sharon, is a doctor.
Everton face biggest financial loss in English game
Everton would also become much
more vulnerable to financial fair play
rules, which are much stricter in the
EFL compared with the Premier
League.
Kieran Maguire, a football finance
author, said: “Relegation would
certainly have a huge impact on the
club financially. The profit and sustain-
ability rules are much tougher in the
EFL than in the Premier League.”
Top-flight clubs are allowed to lose
£105 million over a rolling three-year
period, but any Covid losses and infra-
structure expenditure can be offset.
The maximum permitted loss in the
Championship is only £39 million, and
there have been several cases brought
against clubs for breaching that thresh-
old.
Maguire said that relegation would
force Everton to slash their wage bill
and sell big-name players, such as the
goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and the
forwards Richarlison and Dominic
Calvert-Lewin, to cover losses.
He added: “The [financial] results in
2019, pre-Covid, are indicative of the
challenges they have. You put that intorelegated. Club insiders also insist that
funding for their planned new stadium
is not affected by the losses, nor having
to cut ties with Alisher Usmanov’s com-
pany USM — which paid £30 million
for an exclusive option to the stadium
naming rights — after the oligarch was
sanctioned by the UK government.
The club also believe that they will
avoid any action by the Premier League
for profit and sustainability rules
breaches, as they have had such high
Covid-related losses, and now they
have planning permission for the new
stadium they can also offset all related
spending on the venue from previous
financial years.
Nevertheless, the publication of last
season’s accounts could easily take Ever-
ton past the £300 million mark for losses
over the past three years. There will be
an increase in TV money from the Pre-
mier League because of the pandemic-
related disruption of the previous
season, but there are no gate receipts
from last season, plus Everton reported
transfer spending of £70 million net,
which, although it can be spread over
several years, is still significant.Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter
The club may have to sell high-earning
Richarlison if they are relegatedticket sales. Bruce Buck, the Chelsea
chairman, was quizzed by other club
executives on the latest developments
but one of those at the meeting said
there were “no surprises”.
Chelsea have been given a licence
that allows the European and Club
World Cup champions to continue
“football-related activities”. However,
the freezing of Abramovich’s assets has
also prompted Chelsea’s bank to freeze
some of their corporate credit cards.
With some sponsors suspending their
agreements with the club, there is con-
cern that Chelsea only have sufficient
funds to get to the end of this season,
after which the threat of administration
could become very real.
Aware already that Abramovich has
written off the £1.5 billion he is owed in
soft loans by the club he bought in 2003
— he has now been disqualified from
being a director by the Premier League
— a number of potential bidders are
circling, sensing a bargain to be had.
The British property billionaire Nick
Candy is still in the running, even if it
remains unclear whether he has any
genuine allies who could join him in
forming a rival consortium. Sources in
New York suggest that it is too soon to
dismiss the credentials of Josh Harris,
the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers
basketball team and a stakeholder in
Crystal Palace, while the Ricketts
family, who own the Chicago Cubs
baseball team, are also considered a
serious option. Woody Johnson, the
New York Jets owner, is also thought to
be interested.
The Saudi Media Group, which
claims to be privately owned, has also
reportedly tabled an offer of £2.7 billion
, although the Premier League would
have to be satisfied that there were no
links to the Saudi ruling family, or to the
Saudi owners of Newcastle United.
Boehly tried unsuccessfully to buy
Billionaire bidders
sense a bargain in
race to buy Chelsea
Chelsea in 2019. Now, however,
Abramovich wants to sell, and the
identity of others in the consortium is
certainly convincing insiders that on
this occasion he could be successful.
A PR campaign is clearly being exe-
cuted, with Boehly even anticipating
potential questions about his interest in
being part of a European Super League.
“Frankly, I think what was illustrated in
the collapse of the super league was the
fact that this is all about the fans,” he
said last weekend. “Basically, the fan is
in the middle of all these business mod-
els and if you forget that then you forgot
really why you set out in the first place.”
Goldstein’s potential involvement is
also regarded as significant, given the
expertise he could bring if the new
owners do wish to push on with rede-
veloping Stamford Bridge. Goldstein is
a London-based property investor who
owns the Prezzo chain of restaurants,
and has reportedly been in partnership
with Boehly for the past eight years. In
2018 they were involved in an unsuc-
cessful attempt to buy Spurs.
The government said it was open to
Chelsea being sold but that a new appli-
cation would be needed to enable a sale.
So far, the prime minister’s spokesman
said, the club had not applied for a vari-
ation to their strict special licence.
Chelsea are putting pressure on the
government to allow their fans to at-
tend matches, claiming the integrity of
the Premier League and FA Cup could
be affected by a ban on ticket sales.
The FA and the league are in talks
with government officials over those
concerns, with Chelsea potentially set
to miss out on millions of pounds of
ticket income as a result of Abramovich
being sanctioned. Chelsea are not per-
mitted to sell any tickets to generate
income, and sales of tickets to Chelsea
fans for the away section at Middles-
brough for the FA Cup quarter-final
have been suspended.
Abramovich in ‘$2.7bn fraud’, page 9continued from back Analysis The men behind the bid
Want to escape grim football politics?
Times writers select uplifting stories
Martin Hardy
The roar that filled Elland Road
in the 94th minute was because
Raphinha, above, had the ball.
Talk about pressure. In that
moment, with Leeds held by
Norwich, Raphinha had to go
round Brandon Williams and
Tim Krul, reach the byline, cross
with his weaker right foot, find
Joe Gelhardt and hope he scored.
The Brazilian did all of that
then curled into a celebratory
ball on the ground, fists clenched.£3m boost for
women’s FA Cup
Molly Hudson