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Credit: Hasan Karim, Breaking Media

Tue 8 October 2024 15:50, UK

Everton chief Colin Chong wouldn’t have lied when he previously stated the club could “self-fund” the remainder of the new stadium project.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the interim CEO was perhaps referring to the Merseysiders paying for the infrastructure costs alone as opposed to the entire development.

Everton started work on the development in 2021, with the club expected to make the move from Goodison Park ahead of the 2025-26 season.

Despite the new stadium being projected to cost around £500million, it is now expected to set the Merseysiders back more than £800million.

Speaking to Sky Sports on 14 August, Chong admitted the previous takeover uncertainty hasn’t impacted the stadium development and the club should now be able to “self-fund” the remainder of the project.

But The Liverpool Echo reported on 1 October prospective owners The Friedkin Group will be stepping in to provide Everton with the necessary funding to complete the development.

Everton chief unlikely to have misled people on purpose

“It was a very interesting thing that Colin Chong said,” Borson told Football Insider.

“We picked up on it at the time. I think what happens in these sorts of situations is chief executives come out with a well-crafted statement that is always true on the face of it but below that has some nuance.

“I don’t think there is any possibility that the CEO would have lied or misled, so there was a way in which his vision was true.

“But probably what that meant was it could sell-fund the physical stadium build and he wasn’t talking about how the fit-out would be paid for let’s say.

“The fit-out is also millions of pounds, so it may be that he was giving comfort that the actual infrastructure could now be built or there were certain assumptions that he was making in terms of that confirmation, expectations of certain money that was coming in or whatever.

“It’s impossible to say from the outside, but I think you should always work on the basis that he wouldn’t lie and he would have had some kind of rationale behind what he said.”

In other news, Everton’s new owners make secret Sean Dyche sack plan.

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