Everton takeover: AC Milan buyout might provide answers to Farhad Moshiri amid 777 doubts

When Elliott Management acquired AC Milan in 2018 they did so reluctantly.

A hedge fund management company based in New York, with no previous experience of running a football club, did not want to be owners of one of the most storied football clubs in the world, but it did so as it was the best course of action to take to protect its investment.

Paul Singer’s Elliott firm had provided the financing for the purchase of the club by the former owner, Chinese businessman Li Yonghong, who had succeeded Silvio Berlusconi as owner in 2016. Elliott provided €300m of loans.

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But in 2018, Li Yonhong defaulted on a €32m loan repayment due to Elliott Management, with the Wall Street firm, as part of its security on that debt, opting to acquire AC Milan as an asset.

Fast forward to late 2022 and AC Milan won their first Scudetto in 11 years, and Elliott sold the club to another American firm, New York-based RedBird Capital Partners, in a deal worth some €1.2bn, marking a significant return on the investment that Elliott initially made into the football club.

While the situation is not exactly the same at Everton, it has plenty of parallels.

This time it’s another New York investment firm (there are quite a few of them) who are the focus, with MSP Sports Capital having loaned Everton £158m last year to enable the club to forge ahead with the building of the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, a development that will be a key, revenue-generating asset for the club for decades to come.

The initial plan had been for a 25% convertible debt deal, one that would see MSP provide a