Who Owns Everton?

Everton Football Club was founded in 1878 as St Domingo's FC by members of the St Domingo's Methodist Sunday School chapel in the Everton district of Liverpool. The congregation created the team so that members of the church's cricket club could play a sport during winter. The club was renamed Everton FC a year later to allow people outside the chapel to join.

Everton was a founding member of the Football League in 1888, one of twelve clubs in the original competition. The club played at Anfield from 1884 to 1892, but a dispute between the club and Anfield owner John Houlding over rent and commercial control led to a split. Everton moved to Goodison Park in the Walton area of Liverpool, while Houlding remained at Anfield and founded a new club that became Liverpool FC. Goodison Park became the first purpose-built football stadium in England, and Everton remained there for 133 years until the end of the 2024/25 season.

The early 20th century brought sustained success. Everton won the First Division title in 1914/15 and again in 1927/28, the latter powered by Dixie Dean's record 60 league goals in a single season. The club won a third league title in 1931/32 and the FA Cup in 1933. A fourth league title followed in 1938/39.

The post-war decades saw mixed fortunes. The 1960s brought an FA Cup win in 1966 and a fifth league title in 1969/70 under Harry Catterick. The club's most successful period came in the mid-1980s under manager Howard Kendall. Everton won the FA Cup in 1984, the First Division title in 1984/85 and 1986/87, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1985. The 1984/85 season remains one of the greatest in the club's history, with Everton narrowly missing out on a domestic treble after losing the FA Cup final to Manchester United.

The Premier League era, which began in 1992, brought relative stability but fewer trophies. Everton finished fourth in 2004/05 under David Moyes, qualifying for Champions League football. The club reached the FA Cup final in 2009, losing to Chelsea. Moyes managed the club for eleven years from 2002 to 2013, providing the longest period of stability in the modern era.

Farhad Moshiri acquired a majority stake in the club in 2016. His tenure was marked by heavy spending on players, frequent managerial changes, and growing financial losses. The club twice breached Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR), resulting in unprecedented points deductions in the 2023/24 season. The first deduction was ten points, later reduced to six on appeal. A second deduction of two points followed. Commercial ties with Alisher Usmanov's USM Holdings were severed in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, removing approximately GBP 20 million in annual sponsorship revenue.

Moshiri began seeking an exit in 2022. A proposed takeover by 777 Partners collapsed in 2024 after the investment firm failed to meet conditions. The Friedkin Group, which had briefly withdrawn from negotiations in July 2024, returned and completed the acquisition on December 18, 2024. TFG inherited a club that would have lost nearly GBP 60 million in the 2024/25 financial year had it not been for the internal sale of Everton Women to a related Friedkin entity for GBP 49.2 million. The reported loss for the year was GBP 8.6 million, a sharp reduction from the GBP 53.2 million loss of the previous year.

The 2024/25 season was Everton's last at Goodison Park. David Moyes returned as manager in January 2025, replacing Sean Dyche. The club secured Premier League survival and moved to the new Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock for the start of the 2025/26 season. The inaugural first-team match at the new stadium was a pre-season friendly against AS Roma on August 9, 2025, a fixture that paired two clubs owned by The Friedkin Group.