The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

of standing and do not have disproportionate influence over football clubs”.
Matheson then attempted to find out whether rumours that have been swirling around the blue half of
Merseyside for more than a decade were actually true.
“I understand that Sir Philip Green had something of a role as a shadow director at Everton, including
having [the accountancy firm] PWC conducting an audit of the club and summoning the chief exec and
the team manager to BHS headquarters to discuss transfer budgets,” he said. “Now, if somebody has
paid for some shares through somebody else and through an entity in the British Virgin Islands but is
not declared as a director, would that be a problem?”
Shuffling in his chair, Clarke acknowledged he was “no expert” on the Premier League and said he
“would be happy to have that debate with them”. The man who was Football League chairman from
2010 to 2016 having previously serving in the same role at Leicester City did not waste any time –
last month, the Premier League confirmed that from the 2018–19 season that “any assignments of
central funds can be made only to FCA registered lenders”, although, according to sources with
knowledge of Vibrac and other similar companies, the process had been in the pipeline for much
longer.
The news may not have made many headlines ahead of another busy weekend of action on the pitch
but it was the culmination of a long story that has been chronicled in minute detail by a disaffected
group of Everton fans.
Green’s alleged links to Everton stretch back to 1999, when Bill Kenwright successfully bought the
club from Peter Johnson. According to an interview with the Observer in 2003, the multi-billionaire
“wrote a £30m letter” for Kenwright to help secure funding from The Bank of Scotland because “I
like him”.
Last September, an article with the headline, “Who is the main player in the Everton show?” was
published on the website Everton Viral. Written by an anonymous author, @watchedtoffee, it
described the complicated process that saw Kenwright’s consortium, True Blue Holdings, purchase a
majority shareholding that year thanks to a substantial loan from BCR Sports – a family investment set
up by Earl, the founder of Planet Hollywood and a long-term friend and business associate of Green.
According to the Telegraph, Kenwright was given advice from the owner of BHS and Arcadia “by
telephone on an hourly basis” as they sought to see off a challenge from Paul Gregg – an entertainment
impresario known for establishing Apollo Leisure Group who had formed the original consortium
with Kenwright, his interest being the proposed stadium move to King’s Dock.
The same 23% stake sold by Gregg to BCR Sports was part of the deal that brought the new majority
owner Farhad Moshiri to the club in March. According to @watchedtoffee, that was the culmination
of more than 15 years in which Green has exerted his influence over the club via a series of
mysterious offshore companies.
In 2008, the CEO Keith Wyness resigned from Everton on a matter of principal, reportedly citing Sir
Philip Green’s control over the club.