Oct 9, 10:00 AM
Everton as a Turnaround Project: The Friedkin Group Prepares Its Exit
Less than two years after rescuing the club, Everton’s American owners are hunting for buyers.
In modern European football, private equity plays by a familiar playbook: find a venerable brand drowning in debt, execute a balance-sheet cleanup, finish the real estate project, and scan the room for the next buyer. Less than two years after taking control of Everton Football Club, the American investment vehicle The Friedkin Group has announced it is looking for an exit strategy—or at least a willing financial partner to share the burden.
The Texas-based group acquired the Merseyside club from Farhad Moshiri in December 2024, stepping into a financial mess of spiraling costs and structural instability. Having now overseen the transition into the new Hill Dickinson Stadium and plugged the most alarming holes in the accounting ledgers, the owners have retained investment bank Moelis & Company to advise on selling a controlling stake.
According to the owners, the primary goal was to offer stability and complete the infrastructure works, but with that foundation now safely in place, the time is right to consider the next chapter for Everton. Whether the supporters agree that the foundation is sound remains an open question. The summer transfer window saw significant revenue generated through player sales alongside cautious spending on squad reinforcement, a frugality that predictably sparked friction with a fan base accustomed to ambition, if not financial sanity.
For a group that also maintains controlling interests in Italy’s AS Roma and France’s AS Cannes, the move underlines the cold rationalism currently governing sports portfolio management. Football clubs are no longer multi-generational civic institutions to be held indefinitely; they are operational restructuring exercises with tight turnarounds. The owners insist they will only consider buyers capable of building on recent progress, yet the rapid pivot to an advisory firm speaks louder than corporate platitudes.
Everton has certainly gained temporary financial equilibrium, but the broader picture reveals the harsh reality of Premier League economics. When stadium construction and debt management eclipse on-pitch alchemy, fans are left to wonder whether their club is a sporting enterprise or merely a rehabilitated asset waiting for the next institutional bid.
Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com
