Everton are up for sale once more after an exclusivity agreement between 777 Partners and Farhad Moshiri expired last week.
The club agreed a deal with Miami-based investment group 777 over a year ago, but the Premier League refused to ratify the takeover due to concerns about their ability to fund the club going forward.
Now, a number of other suitors have reportedly emerged as prospective new owners, some perhaps more credible than others.
Here, we take a look at the nine contenders to buy the historic but financially vulnerable Merseyside club.
9. 777 Partners
The nightmare scenario – although one that is a near impossibility.
The 777 group’s football division is on the verge of collapse amid a litany of financial and legal issues.
They clearly do not have the funds to run Everton and the bombastic approach of 777’s management is not what Everton, a club who are crying out for stability, need.
It would be out of the frying pan and into the fire for Everton. But failing a miraculous resurrection group, it won’t happen.
8. A-Cap
It has been reported that A-Cap, one of 777 Partners’ major lenders, want to take a minority stake in the Toffees.
The insurance investors have their own legal issues at the moment and their relationship with 777 will surely have Everton fans running scared.
The group are also believed to be exposed to liabilities of around £2bn because of their association with 777.
With Everton already in debt to Rights & Media Funding (£225m), MSP Sports Capital (£158m) and Metro Bank (£10m), supporters will surely not want the club to get into bed with this group.
7. John Textor
According to reports, this one seems like a remote possibility.
John Textor is co-owner of Crystal Palace as well as a number of other clubs across multiple continents.
However, his involvement with Palace as well as his apparent doubts about Moshiri‘s negotiations style mean that a Textor takeover seems very unlikely now.
Textor also has something of an erratic ownership approach.
He has invoked anger at one of his clubs RWD Molenbeek for failing to meet with fans following their relegation from the Dutch top flight.
The American billionaire has also made controversial remarks about match-fixing in Brazil, where he is the owner of historic side Botafogo.
6. Qatari group
A Qatari takeover is lower down this list based purely on it’s relative improbability.
iNews reported earlier this year that the Qatar Investment Authority, who control assets of £375bn, had been contacted about the possibility of a deal.
But the sovereign wealth fund, who failed in a bit to buy Man United last year, have not been linked any further.
It seems highly unlikely that, if they were interested, news of their pursuit of the club would have been kept under wraps for this long.
In any case, state ownership ofPremier League clubs is increasingly under the microscope, as are associate party transactions, which have been one of the main benefits of this model historically.
5. Dan Friedkin
AS Roma owner Dan Friedkin is reportedly interersted in acquiring a majority stake in Everton.
He has been criticised by Jose Mourinho, who won the Europa Conference League for him at Roma, as knowing “nothing about football.”
Also, UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership would mean that, if he was to buy Everton, the two clubs would not be able to play in European competition simultaneously.
That doesn’t appear as though it would be an immediate concern for Everton, whose recent aim in the Premier League has been to stay in the division.
However, Everton fans hoping for an ambitious new oener would likely be sceptical about their ceiling under Freidkin
He is a credible investor, however, and controls assets of £5bn, so there are worse options out there.
4. Vatche Manoukian
The bid fronted by Vatche Manoukian has attracted headlines of involving a ‘Saudi royal’
And while that is true, there are over 15,000 members of the Saudi royal family, so it’s not as exclusive a club as you might imagine
Still, the group led by Manoukian, a London-based entrepeneur is a genuine option having made a £400m bid for Everton which would be all equity and no debt.
That makes them stand out in a field in which bidders are proposing to lend the club money in addition to taking a stake.
As well as Saudi involvement, the Manoukian group also includes financiers from the United States.
3. MSP Sports Capital
MSP Sports Capital have been interersted in an Everton takeover for more than a year.
They have an option to take a controlling stake in the club as part of a previous financing arrangement, so the pathway to a takeover is perhaps clearer than some of the other options.
They have a wealth of football experience given that they, like Textor and 777, have stakes in a number of clubs across the globe.
But their modus operandi has typically been to be more of a silent partner in those clubs, so it would be a gear change for them to fully take the wheel at a club with the stature of Everton.
They could, therefore, act as interim owners while another investor arranges the funds to buy the club outright.
MSP want to protect their investment in terms of their existing loan to the club, which would mean this is a viable solution.
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2. Michael Dell
Strictly speaking, Michael Dell, the tenth richest man in the world, is not looking to buy Everton.
He is, however, lending funds to local businessan Andy Bell and George Downing as part of their takeover bid. More on that soon.
The extent of his involvement with their takeover campaign isn’t clear, nor is how much he would contribute financially to the club if their campaign was to be successful.
But if the computer industry multi-billionaire could be tempted to throw his weight behind Everton as an individual investor, it would be an appealing route for the club.
1. Bell-Downing consortium
This appears to be the most popular option with Everton fans, and it’s easy to see why.
Bell and Downing are Evertonians and hugely successful businessmen in their own rights.
Couple with Dell’s backing, supporters see them as reliable custodians of the club who understand its culture and heritage.
This would be a takeover based on much more than sentiment though.
With MSP Sports Capital, they too have an investment in the club in the form of a loan, which they would want to protect.
Their offer to refinance the club’s debt is also appealing.