Everton to add Megafon signage to Goodison's exterior

Slowly integrating the money into the business is the way to stop FFP and UEFA being able to object when the bigger stuff starts rolling in.

Next will be Mr Ancellotti's transfer funds, as soon as planning permission is granted. As someone once said: "You don't have tax problems, you just don't have a good accountant."

EitC is more useful to the first team than you might think. Anyone would think we had an accountant getting things in order.

I wouldn't have anything else.

Genuine question, not sure how the vagueries of FFP works so, am I right in thinking that come the Summer Transfer Window or a date very near to it, we have basically a clean slate?

Another question; is the cost of running our Women's squad offset against the losses?

All hypothetical I know, but the amount that has been wasted, on not only poor players, but Managerial Compensations is just a travesty in retrospect, but we seem to be going in the right direction now, hopefully!

At the moment we are something like –13+31–112 or similar = –䀊 million. Even worse we are about to lose the one year we made a profit from the calculation. That has led to some speculating that we will pass the limit this summer if we have made a loss this year, so squad investment must wait.

However, we can knock off infrastructure investment, youth development and community projects from the total, which by my reckoning (not particularly well informed but taken from club accounts) could total 㿊 - 50 million per year plus any investment in community projects.

Even if my lower figure is correct we have much less to worry about than some might think.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/29361839

Let me explain: when we first went in for Jonas Lössl on a free from relegated Huddersfield, I thought it made sense because it was alleged that Stekelenburg was due to leave.

Not only is Stekelenburg still here, but Lössl, who was on 㿈k/week at Huddersfield, was given 㿡k/week – an increase of 㿅k. As if this was not flagrant enough, he hasn't been on the bench very often either, with Stekelenburg being preferred.

At a time when they are stating record losses, is it any wonder why? It is sometimes beyond belief.

https://www.spotrac.com/epl/everton-f.c/payroll/

Interestingly, he's still being paid more than Calvert-Lewin, Holgate and Davies.

Hopefully Alisher will have more nouse than Farhad and not spunk his millions on stupid contracts for over-valued players. Alisher was behind the deal for Carlo to become manager. Let's hope he knows a few decent players or is mates with their agents.

Mbape, Koulibaly and a couple of midfielders would do for starters. 😊 I won't hold my breath, though, this is Everton we are talking about.

"Alisher was behind the deal for Carlo to become manager."

Nope. Carlo says otherwise.

"No, absolutely not. I spoke with Mr Farhad, I spoke with Mr Bill Kenwright, with Mr Marcel, I met Alisher Usmanov one time ago but it was for social, there was no involvement for football."

I believe him over that Financial Times rumour.

I agree, we should ignore rumour, and speculation is just for fun, but there are better grounds than most to assume that there might be a link here.

㿪k was the figure I remember as it represented more than doubling what he was on at Huddersfield, which shocked me at the time, but I can't remember where it was I saw it. Hence I quoted the above reference which is still astronomic for a player who is not even on the bench.

So Lössl has just been relegated to the Championship where potentially his contract may say his wages drop, yet he persuades Everton to not only resurrect his Premier League career, he says he will only go if we more than double his wages?

Lössl did not come with a great reputation either. Do you think anyone – let alone Brands – could negotiate a worse contract than this?

Surely this is going to be the main sponsor of the club, the training ground and the stadium?

Is this just the telecommunications side of USM? Either way, one of them will be the name of the new stadium, I'm sure.

I just can't see Bill and Farhad convincing him that coming to Everton is a smart move. Unless the backing of USM was on the agenda during talks.

As you are probably aware apart from the big ones, new ones spring up every now and then offering better deals. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't also operate in the Balkan States and Eastern Europe. Hope that helps!

On the topic of FFP and the 3-year operating loss window, last year's massive loss will mean that we won't have a "safe" 3 year period for a couple more years now, but that can be mitigated by generating new revenue combined with moving out some high-wage, low-return pieces.

It likely won't be this summer though; more likely summer 2021, once even more come off the books, like Walcott, Schneiderlin, Bolasie & Sandro (remember them?!). In addition to of course those who come off this summer.

I don't know the specifics of how these financials are calculated, but I believe that even if we're able to move some out before the ends of their current contracts, then anything left owed on their original transfer fees has to be mitigated by any transfer fees we can collect on them. Otherwise the remainder is owed and becomes a loss. It's a difficult scenario for certain.

We get sponsored by Chinese companies and the advertising hoardings are in Chinese to appeal to Chinese viewers. Chang adverts had Thai writing, although they tried to sell their beer around the world too.

So, why are the MegaFon adverts in English? You can't get MegaFon in England. If it was a genuine advert then this would be in Russian. They don't even use the same alphabet.

This is clearly all done for FFP purposes. We're trying to make it look like we have genuine sponsorship. It should work, but it's obvious that this is just a vehicle for Usmanov to pump money into Everton.

If they ever venture outside of Russia, consumers will already be familiar with the Megafon brand.

Are you guys still not worried about USM?

AC Milan were banned from Europe last year. Their place went to Torino instead. The league sends who they want. If we get 5th then we get Champions League footy, depending on the inevitable legal challenge.

Usmanov owns nothing of us. As far as I know, it's not illegal for a friend to sponsor a friend or their enterprise.

I can't see how we can ever be penalized as long as Usmanov never ever legally owns any stake in us. I think this action against Man City does mean that Usmanov will never own a stake in us for fear of retrospective punishment.

Any investigation into Everton would reopen this. I have faith Moshiri and Usmanov know what they are doing and have top lawyers.

I'm still worried and I'll be hoping that Man City win their case.

The whole Man City thing will be dealt with quickly as the punishment is immediate. 5th place this season could be enough for Champions League if City fail. But, Fifa are taking on an entire country and its rulers!

If City's punishment is indeed upheld, surely it's a matter of time before PSG suffer the same way?

They can simply just say USM own all these companies sponsoring Everton and Moshiri is on the board, therefore the sponsorship is a method of pumping in funds to get around FFP, but they would need to prove that the sponsorship is inflated. Everton need to be very careful.

I completely see your point Steve about all our money coming from one source and the links are strong. We can just hope this was all well thought out before these new deals started to come into play.

I did read a club is taking on Fifa / Uefa in court regarding FFP, the club escapes me now but was something I read online. The expert they had commenting on it said a legal challenge should result in the club winning as the argument for stunting competition and growth is obvious but would be at least a 2 year process.