Jamie Carragher clashes with Everton fan over £30m Alisher Usmanov development
Jamie Carragher has claimed that Alisher Usmanov’s £30m sponsorship for the new Everton stadium was “a fiddle”.
The Russian oligarch was a major sponsor of the Toffees before the war in Ukraine saw him stripped of his assets, meaning he had to leave the club and they were left without his money.
That contributed to the recent FFP and PSR charges that saw the team docked six points but while appearing on The Overlap Fan Debate (8 March), Carragher clashed with a fan about the initial sponsorship money anyway and claimed it was “a fiddle”.
“Everton’s covid losses were like £50 or £100m more than everybody else’s, considering you haven’t got the biggest stadium and you don’t bring that much commercial stuff in,” he said.
“You’re not like a United or a Liverpool, bringing commercial revenue in.”
Carragher then asked what the sponsorship was about that got disregarded by the Premier League in their case against PSR charges. When told it was USR’s £30m for naming rights to the new stadium, Carragher wasn’t happy.
“They paid £30m for naming rights? Listen to this sponsorship, this is hilarious this one,” he said.
“What was the £30m they gave you for? It was the first dibs on the naming rights. It was a fiddle. It was a fiddle, you know it was a fiddle.”
He then laughed hysterically and told the fan to “behave”.
Everton suffering due to Farhad Moshiri’s nonsense
According to most reports at the time, Usmanov’s USR company had paid for the privilege of the naming rights for the Bramley Moore Dock Stadium for ten years.
Whether it was going to happen or not nobody knows anymore because the stadium is due to come out and there are no talks of a name coming yet, while Usmanov remains sidelined by the government for a war he’s not involved in.
However for Carragher to call it a fiddle is a reach considering the relationship that Farhad Moshiri had with him.
But ultimately because of that relationship it has cost Everton crazy amounts of money, huge problems on the pitch and now six plus points this season alone.
Everton have really suffered and the quicker new owners are in place that are right for the club the better, so we can move away from this huge mess.
