IAN HERBERT: Everton’s attempts to hide financial shortcomings show there’s a charlatan at the helm

It’s tempting to suggest that Todd Boehly, the man who calmly detonates Chelsea while turning them into his personal game of Football Manager, is the worst owner in British football.

But that would be to overlook the person ‘overseeing’ the club, who quietly announced their financial results on Friday, hoping the world wouldn’t notice.

Friday’s bad news drop is a strategy Manchester City used when their spending first breached UEFA spending rules, but Everton’s numbers were something else altogether.

The few sombre paragraphs headed ‘Going Concern’ were a dagger to the heart of all those who love the dignity and history of this great club.

In icy auditorspeak, the report said there was “a material uncertainty” that Everton could continue operations if they were relegated to the Championship at the end of this season. Farhad Moshiri, the madman behind the wheel of the club, who has somehow made £750 million since 2016, has said he will keep the tap open. But even Everton executives aren’t sure. Certainly not the accountants.

Of course, Friday’s 42-page annual report didn’t tell the full story of Moshiri’s outrageous mismanagement of one of our country’s legendary clubs.

There was no mention of the lack of relegation clauses in most of their players’ contracts. No mention of Dele Alli returning to the club this summer, with wages of more than £200,000 a week over £100,000, following his release from Besiktas. Nothing about how the few valuable players who left, like Jordan Pickford, would demand a lower price if Everton are relegated and forced to sell.

And no adequate explanation for why the club is being referred to an independent commission, for an alleged breach of the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules, which could see a points deduction next season.

Research by Everton specialist The Esk, whose financial analysis of Goodison is second to none, suggests the club was already in Premier League ‘special measures’ after wildly flouting spending rules.

They had agreed to sell players worth £100m by the end of the just reported financial year, to avoid penalties. Yet they failed to do so. Which, to put it politely, is a staggering level of incompetence.

The dignity of the supporters’ reaction to the alleged spending violation was striking over the past week.

Whenever Manchester City is accused of something like this, it is dressed up as some sort of deep state conspiracy by their influencers. But the view of many around Everton is that, as the Esk puts it, ‘When you sign up for the Premier League, you sign up for the rules.’

The outrage is reserved for Moshiri and his board who released those financial results on Friday at the last business hour of the last possible day within legal limits. They could have been released in January, when they first opted out, but instead added to the maelstrom facing manager Sean Dyche – the person whose work has at least given supporters something to cling to.

One of the bitter ironies for those fans is that the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock – the face of the club’s future for so long – could become someone else’s, should relegation come. One scenario is that it would be sold to raise money and an arrangement would be made whereby Everton would become the tenant.

One of the most despicable aspects of this whole story is the way supporter protests are characterized as vicious indiscipline when it has never been more necessary. There were dark murmurs about fans going too far in January, when the directors were absent from the home defeat to Southampton. Nonsense.

Bill Kenwright – or “Chairman Bill” as he signs off his notes on the bills – gave more of this characterization on Friday. He described in his notes how last season’s relegation breakaway had ‘made the recent instruction to myself and my fellow board members not to go to Goodison Park all the more painful. That hurt deeply.”

No allusion to supporters feeling excluded from any sort of dealings with the club’s management. As the Esk points out, there’s not been any sort of on-the-record discussion about finances with CFO Grant Ingles. No general meeting provision for shareholders. Where is the transparency and accountability?

The uncertainty of a points deduction has left the club stranded in so many ways, with any search for new investors stone dead.

Moshiri’s valuation of the club has been a hindrance in the past as potential investors such as Maciek Kaminski walked away. Moshiri lives under the illusion that someone will spend the same £300 million on Everton that the Saudis paid for Newcastle.

The team’s comeback against Tottenham on Monday revealed the fighting spirit Dyche is reigniting. The unbridled joy over Goodison as Michael Keane’s goal flew in was a reminder that this is a place with such football spirit and soul.

It is a club that does not belong to self-publicists with more money than sense. In a month or so survival in the Premier League would be welcome, but then a wider existential challenge awaits. Let Moshiri know without a doubt that he is not welcome. Get him out the door.

FA has the RIGHT to ask for a longer suspension from Mitrovic

The FA is quite right that the eight-match suspension handed out to Aleksandr Mitrovic for his disgraceful behavior at Manchester United is even longer, although one wonders if such reprisals would have been taken if he hadn’t shoved a referee in a sensational performance. agreement.

We were treated to a cozy little charade from Mitrovic a few days ago, as he apologized and looked remorseful, with this verdict looming. “I want to put this incident behind me,” he said.

How comfortable for this hugely well-paid influencer to put it all in the past. Less easy for local umpires like Barry Cropp.

When we spoke a while ago, he had just sent a player off for headbutting an opponent in an under-18 game. The headbutt and the father of the headbutt insulted him on the field, approaching the locker room, and in the parking lot as Cropp and his wife walked to the car.

To rid our game of this filth, the example must come from above. A 10-match suspension for Mitrovic is no exaggeration.

How the sports world has let Ukraine down

We got to know a young Ukrainian girl here in Manchester last year as she found refuge from the unfolding nightmare at home. Her own city was attacked at one point. I remember we hid the papers that weekend.

When she first arrived there was a general decision that Russia was a pariah state, excluded and not tolerated as we all stood with Ukraine. But gradually and inexorably the sport’s resolve weakens. The All England Lawn Tennis Club reverses the ban on Russians and Belarusians. Fencing governing body approves Russian presence at next summer’s Olympics.

Thomas Bach of the IOC is waiting to see how events unfold in Ukraine before committing. Each weakening is accompanied by carefully crafted press statements, full of caveats and regrets, that obscure the lack of backbone and moral strength of those who, a year or so later, are not really with Ukraine at all.

Hard to see Soucek put out of his misery

There was a time, a few years ago, when Tomas Soucek’s only challenge at West Ham was to adapt to playing at Christmas.

He was a classic David Moyes acquisition – great value, great work ethic and part of a dynamic partnership with Declan Rice. But his life at West Ham is now barren.

Against Southampton on Sunday, he struggled to tackle, unsure of his role and was cheered when he was substituted after about an hour. You felt that leaving the field was actually a relief for him.

Coach Kevin Nolan came out to meet him as he approached the bench and grabbed him in a way that seemed to shield him from the fun experienced at his departure. Nolan seemed to say, “I’ve been there.”

Those are the brutal realities of football.