- 777 Partners’ takeover of Everton is now “utterly dead in the water” after Josh Wander and Steven Pasko were removed from the firm’s football board, according to Josimar.
The investigative outlet reported via their website on 10 May that after the struggling company called in bankruptcy specialists the two co-founders had been moved aside within the football division, as 777 fight for survival.
B. Riley Advisory Services have been brought in to attempt to rescue the company, with the speed at which it looks to be crumbling seen as a “shock”, and crisis management expert Ron Glass was reportedly at 777’s Miami offices on Friday.
Wander and Pasko have been removed from the board of Nutmeg Acquisitions LLC, the entity which controls the football operations of 777 through various holding companies, including Red Star FC in Paris, Italian Serie A side Genoa, Standard Liege in Belgium where their Friday evening match was abandoned due to fan protests, Brazil’s Vasco da Gama and Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin, plus minority stakes in La Liga giants Sevilla and Australian side Melbourne Victory.
Nutmeg is reportedly now being run by Don Dransfield, a former member of City Group, and from an Everton perspective the deal agreed with Farhad Moshiri in September is considered to be over.
The situation within the 777 empire has appeared increasingly precarious for some time as their eight-month attempt to take charge at Goodison Park floundered but it looks to have reached breaking point.
One of the numerous court cases the group is involved in on the other side of the Atlantic claimed that their bid to buy the Toffees was the move that had caused the business to fall apart.
Their loans to Everton of around £200million to bankroll the club through the season were seen as an increasingly risky bet as the campaign wore on and Premier League approval for the deal wasn’t secured, and it looks like that has proven to be the case as it hasn’t paid off.
