deiseach

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This analogy would work here if your missus came along as you were doing the painting and said nothing on the basis that you'd already started.

This analogy would work here if your missus came along as you were doing the painting and said nothing on the basis that you'd already started.

"Well done boys, good process." Smug, self-congratulatory cunts.

It's noteworthy how the hacks are circling their wagons around the idea that there is a right way of approaching this which, while not specifying what the 'right' way is, Liverpool are not following so have lost the right to object. The British press - punching down since the year dot.

I can't get on board with the corruption calls. How does it work? Make sure Liverpool don't score in the first half hour? You might as well imply that we should check Matip's bank balance. Having said all that, unless they release the audio of the conversation that took place then it's impossible to face down the corruption calls, and I don't think they will release the audio because they'd rather be thought of as corrupt than incompetent. They can just dismiss the former as being the product of kooks, but the latter is a cut at every top referee's self-conception. Yeah, it might have been the wrong call but it was understandable. Well, without corruption this one can only be understood in the context of complete uselessness, and we can't have that. Carry on with statements laden with the passive voice - mistakes were made, lessons will be learned - in the well-placed confidence that the news cycle will move onto the next debacle within hours.

The Blues are revolting (etc)

Speaking of Dave's boys, you can't have anything that relies on "Dom" because he'll think one of his boys is back.

Here's my record at games where Jurgen is the manager: P25 W21 D4 L0 F77 A17. And one of the draws was the 5-5 with Arsenal in the League Cup so Liverpool 'won' on pelanties. I was giddy beyond belief when he was appointed manager, yet imagine if someone had suggested that I could look forward to that kind of record at the ground? Ridiculous.

No honour among thieves, eh? And by 'thieves', I mean 'cunts'.

The guy on the right looks shady as well.

Players and posters.

Saint and Greavsie, because it had the previous weekend's goals. It certainly wasn't for their comic stylings.

Ka-VAN-AH is the woolliest of wool pronunciations. My team leader is one and every time I say it I feel like washing my mouth out. I do say it though. When in Widnes etc. Surprised Dave didn't mention the movement from Nunez for the goal. The finish was fine but it was at point-blank range. The movement, on the other hand...everything Dave has been banging on about for months. The defenders both thought they had it covered and in less time than it takes to blink, he's in. Great stuff.

Putting the ball through someone's legs to lose possession is to nutmegging what wanking is to sex.

They wouldn't be the first to accept being a bit shit, which means they can't accept being a bit shit.

They'll be the classy and dignified type of morally bankrupt.

It is one possibility. If they threaten the club with rent rises then as long as we have Goodison standing we have a choice. We could even groundshare with them lot and that gives us some bargaining power. That says it does depend on the contract to how well we are roped into said agreement but I'd hope there would be protective clauses in there from our end too.

QED.

Yeah, but the powers-that-be ensured they never got Hamez. Oh. Right.

The extent to which they've learned nothing over the last decade is mind-blowing, especially when you consider that they have the warning from history that was Liverpool's implosion on the 90's. I wonder whether sub-consciously that's part of the problem, that they're not like Liverpool and therefore the problem must be unique to them. Back in May 2013, a poster on another forum gave us this nugget on how Man Utd would fare in the first post-Ferguson season: I haven't linked to him because he's a decent guy who doesn't deserve to be ridiculed, the kind who publicly rejoiced when the Hillsborough panel's report came out. For all of that, to coin a phrase: WTF? And the thing is, he could post something similar today to the effect that The Club is perfect and is only being held back by malign forces, and it would be greeted with nods of approval by the faithful. I don't care if they bin bag Ten Hag, not even Qatar's resources could take them back to where their fans expect them to be. It'll take a Klopp-like figure to turn them around. Good luck to them finding one.

At least John O'Shea supports his local team back home. Supporting the Evil Empire next door be like:

 The 777 football mystery by Lars, josimarfootball.com July 3, 2023 05:34 AM Multiple club-owner 777 – a US private investors group – has a patchy record in honouring its financial commitments and is the subject of several court actions in the USA. So who are they, and where does the money come from? By Paul Brown and Philippe Auclair The name of 777 Partners barely registered in the football world until September 2021, when the “Miami-based alternative investment firm” acquired 99.99 percent of the shares of Genoa CFC for an estimated 150 million euro. Football had been a footnote in the list of multiple activities – from controversial payday loans to super-low cost aviation – of the group founded in 2015 by US businessmen Joshua C. Wander and Stephen W. Pasko. They’d bought a small stake in the multiple Europa League champion Sevilla FC in 2018, purchasing an extra 1200 shares two years later, upping their stake in the Spanish club to 7.5 percent of its capital (*). And that was that, as far as football was concerned. Yet, in less than two years, 777, a private company which insists does not invest other people’s money, but only the wealth of its owners, has become a multiple club owner only surpassed by a handful of operators such as Abu Dhabi’s controlling entity City Football Group in terms of the depth and breadth of their investments in club football. Sevilla was the water-tester, Genoa CFC the springboard. A giant of Brazilian futebol, Vasco de Gama, joined the doyen of Italian calcio in the 777 portfolio in February 2022. Standard Liège, a mainstay of the Belgian game, was added to it a month later. Red Star, a Parisian club whose status far exceeds its more recent achievements, followed in a matter of weeks. 777 also did the supposedly undoable by becoming the first-ever foreign majority shareholder of a Bundesliga club, Hertha BSC, when they bought out the 64.7 percent stake of German billionaire Lars Windhorst in November 2022 (*). The last addition to date to the 777 family of clubs has been Melbourne Victory FC in January 2023, Wander and Pasko paying 6.1 million US dollars to acquire 19.9 percent of the Australian club’s shares and pledging to invest an extra 20 million by 2028, by which time they will control 70 percent of its capital. This means that 777 now owns in full or in part seven football clubs in seven different countries on three continents, for an outlay which Josimar estimates could run up to 900 million dollars in total (*), debt burden not included, a colossal sum for a company which is nowhere near as cash-rich as other US equity funds which have recently set their eyes on, in particular, European clubs. Haemorrhaging money? Clearlake Capital, for example, which has a 60 percent stake in Chelsea and has just bought 100 percent of French club RC Strasbourg, manages 72 billion US dollars in assets. Elliott, which funded the purchase of Milan by Chinese businessman Li Yonghong and repossessed the club when Li defaulted on his payments, is of a similar size. 777, by comparison, claims to control 6 billion US dollars worth of investments, a figure which it is not possible to corroborate as, as is the rule for American private firms, the company’s accounts are not made public. Some light can be shed on the group’s corporate structure and finances by looking at the Financial Condition Report filed with the Bermudan authorities by one of its subsidiaries, 777 Re. Ltd, which is based in the Caribbean tax haven and registered a loss before tax of 26.7 million US dollars in the year ending 31 December 2021. 777 corporate structure The size of 777’s spend is all the more remarkable because they haven’t just bought football assets: they have also taken on their considerable liabilities, committing to spending tens, hundreds of millions more in player acquisitions, debt servicing and infrastructure for years to come. None of their clubs is profitable, in fact, 777’s football empire appears to be haemorrhaging money. Sevilla, for all their improbable triumphs in the UEFA Europa League, have lost close to 60 million euro over the last couple of years. Genoa has announced losses of 61.7 million euro for the 2021-22 season, whilst Vasco de Gama’s deficit was just under 22 million US dollars for the same period. Standard Liège did not fare any better in 2021-22, losing 20.2 million euro, and nor did Red Star, who were reported to be in the red to the tune of 2.4 million, a fortune for a club playing in the National, the third tier of the French football pyramid. Hertha BSC’s accounts have not been made available for that period yet, but their financial results for 2020-21 (a loss of 83.3 million euro) make it easier to understand why Windhorst was keen to find a buyer. Last, Melbourne Victory FC was 4.5 million US dollars short of breaking even last season. 777’s appetite for football clubs does not seem to have been impaired by those bleak figures. They are intent on filling the big remaining gap in their portfolio: an English club. Their name was recently mentioned in relation to a possible takeover of Everton FC (and at least one firm offer of investment was made, but Josimar was told later talk of a full takeover may have been little more than a useful PR exercise by both sides), after which West Ham and Sheffield United were also linked to the US company, though no concrete proposal seems to have been made in either case. The question must be which rationale lies behind 777’s empire-building effort. Save Sevilla, and, to an extent, Melbourne Victory FC, the clubs they’ve targeted so far share some key characteristics. They all are institutions, ‘names’ which resonate in football history, clubs which have known better days in terms of success on the pitch but still command considerable support among fans. Their potential is real, with that all-important caveat: to unleash it will require considerable, sustained extra funding, and even that might not be enough in leagues – Belgium, France, Brazil and Italy – where profitability is an almost inaccessible dream. It is one thing to purchase a club, and it is quite another to carry on pumping in money in it just to make it survive, as they have and will have to for the foreseeable future for every single one of theirs. Moreover, it’s not as if 777 had identified a single distressed asset which, with some time, a lot of imagination and plenty of money, could be transformed into a valuable commodity and be traded at a profit, as Elliott did with Milan when they sold it on to another US investor, Red Bird Capital Partners. It’s not as if they could call on the means which Clearlake have at their disposal, which would enable them to play a long game as Todd Boehly’s associates are prepared to play with Chelsea and, now, RC Strasbourg. They cannot call on the kind of (direct or indirect) state support which the City Football Group, Saudi sovereign fund PIF or Qatar Sports Investments can rely on to further their ambitions. They cannot even call on other private investors to fund their campaign of acquisition, as 777 maintains that all of the money they’re investing and, so far, losing, is coming from the pockets of their owners. 777’s model is unique and, according to several football finance brokers which Josimar has consulted, unlikely to be replicated. “In purely financial terms”, said one of them, “I can’t see how they will ever make a return on their investment, but I can see how they could lose a lot more money. The whole thing doesn’t make sense to me.” So who exactly are the men behind 777, and where does their money come from? The trouble with Josh The face of the company is Josh Wander, a University of Florida graduate with a chequered history who has seen his name repeatedly appear in courts in the USA. Wander’s first brush with the law came when he was arrested for drug trafficking as a 21-year-old. His arrest, on Valentine’s Day 2003, is not the only time he has fallen foul of the US authorities. He was arrested twice more in Florida, his home state, in 2009 and 2018, on other, lesser charges, and both he and many of the non-footballing companies within or related to the 777 portfolio were, over the years, named in a string of other hugely controversial and at times deeply shocking court cases across the US, some of which are ongoing. To go back to the beginning, when still a student, Wander was arrested opening a package containing 31.2 grams of cocaine which was being tracked by Drug Task Force agents. Wander claimed the cocaine was for him and a friend, and a year later, pleaded no contest in a Florida court to charges of cocaine trafficking and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to 16 years’ probation. A news report published at the time stated he avoided a possible 26-year prison sentence with his plea, with a spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office claiming “a related case is being investigated, and Wander must cooperate before he will be off the hook.” By this point, Wander had graduated from university – where he met several associates who would later join him at 777 – and entered the world of structured settlements, where he claims he made his money. Firms in this industry offer lump sum cash to people who have been awarded periodic payments to resolve a lawsuit arising from a claim of personal injury or wrongful death. Whilst working as director of acquisitions for Structured Asset Services LLC in 2009, Wander was supplied with a reference letter in support of various motions relating to the terms of his probation by Andrew Savysky, the company’s president at that time. The letter was submitted to court. But Savysky then dramatically withdrew it and sued Wander instead, alleging he “misappropriated confidential company information and trade secrets, and otherwise violated the terms of his employment agreement.” Savysky wrote to a Florida judge in September 2010, saying: “Regardless of the outcome of the suit, I can no longer stand by my reference letter.” In between the writing of these two letters, in July 2009, Wander was arrested again for failing to appear in court. After leaving Savysky’s company, Wander met Steven W. Pasko, a former real estate appraiser who later branched out into investment banking, and the pair co-found SuttonPark Capital, “an independently-owned investment firm”, in 2010. SuttonPark grew quickly, and currently claims to be “the leading wholesale aggregator and servicer of structured settlements in the United States.” Several sources who have worked for 777 told Josimar this is the only company in their portfolio which consistently makes large amounts of money. But Wander just cannot seem to keep his name out of the courts. On 14 October 2011 he landed himself in hot water with the Bellagio, a famous Las Vegas resort and casino which features as the central setting in the Hollywood blockbuster Ocean’s Eleven. The Bellagio advanced him 78,000 dollars in credit, but was forced to take him to court when he left the resort having paid back just 5,000 dollars. In November of the following year, having paid off some of the debt, a Nevada court ordered him to settle the rest, plus costs, putting his outstanding liability at 54,500 dollars. But by 6 November 2018, Wander still had not paid back all of the money, court papers showing he had made five smaller payments throughout 2013, none of which amounted to more than 10,000, but which, together, totalled 43,000 dollars. But because the debt has now accrued post-judgement interest of 6,353, Wander still owed Bellagio 17,853 dollars at the time an affidavit of renewal was brought before the court. Now a mover and shaker in Florida, he began to make a name for himself among the rich and famous, and, in 2012, was pictured partying with global sporting superstar LeBron James and his Miami Heat team-mates at the LIV nightclub in Miami the night after the Heat won that year’s NBA championship. James and team-mate Dwyane Wade sang into mics, danced on stage and shot CO2 guns into the air while Wander looked on, wearing a pair of oversized red-rimmed specs. Mining and real estate mogul Wayne Boich, who went on to help found 777 Partners, was also pictured with them. But Wander was summoned to court in Florida once again in January 2013, accused by American Express Centurion Bank in Utah of failing to pay a credit card bill. The company closed his account claiming he owed them 245,516 dollars as of April 2013. By August, he was ordered by the court to pay back the full amount, plus costs. By November he had repaid the debt in full. “These men are pigs” But by this point, SuttonPark, still owned by 777 to this day, was becoming embroiled in legal cases where serious accusations were made against them, two of which revolved around two vulnerable and unfortunate young women, Lyndsy Goney and Tierra Douglas. Both of these cases remain ongoing. Lyndsy Goney was only 13 years old when she was seriously injured after a truck collided with the car she was a passenger in. As a result of this accident, Lyndsy was granted a structured settlement of 1 million dollars. Later in her life she became addicted to drugs and ran out of money, and in stages during 2016, she sold her annuity to a subsidiary of SuttonPark called Liberty Settlement Solutions LLC, for just 273,556 dollars. Lyndsy’s mother and father Lori and Rodney Goney later filed a lawsuit alleging not only that Sutton “took advantage of Lyndsy’s addicted condition and need for money, and paid her an unreasonably low price”, but that the company “made the purchases by abducting Lyndsy and her son, keeping Lyndsy on drugs, and demonizing her parents,” in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act. Key to the case is the claim made in court documents, seen by Josimar, that Sutton “invested in and controlled an enterprise that conducted a pattern of racketeering activities,” including “kidnapping, bribery, extortion and dealing in a controlled substance.” None of the allegations have yet been proved in court. Josimar contacted Lori Goney to ask her about the allegations she made about operatives working for Sutton. She said: “These men are pigs. They are awful. They gave Lyndsy drugs. They took my grandson. He was three years old! I was trying to find them every night. They didn’t want her around me, because I was trying to stop it. They would take her cell phone. A couple of them. Every time I got her number, they would change it. They would keep her in hotels. It was like this for months. Until we finally found her and got her home. Even then, they tried to blackmail her. They videoed her after getting her high in her hotel, and said if she doesn’t stop, they will plaster it all over social media. They are totally unregulated. They are bad people.” Lori claims associates of the company threatened her, and after reporting this to the court, her lawyer Farva Jafri received a threatening voicemail which is currently being investigated by the FBI. A police Incident Report corroborates these claims. Joshua Wander was president of SuttonPark at the time the alleged offences occurred and the lawsuit was filed, and is still listed as “founder” of the company on LinkedIn. Pasko remains listed as managing partner and chief executive officer of SuttonPark on the company’s website. Extraordinary as the details of that case may be, it is far from the only lawsuit of its type filed against SuttonPark. In 2017, a schizophrenic 24-year-old woman from Missouri named Tierra Douglas agreed to sell off periodic payments worth 2.2 million dollars to the same SuttonPark subsidiary, Liberty Settlement Solutions, for which she received a one-off sum of 500,000 dollars. Douglas had been hospitalised for mental health treatment six times before meeting Liberty. An only child, she was receiving the tax-free payments as a result of a lawsuit brought after the wrongful death of her father in a trucking accident when she was just 14. Her case against Liberty and Sutton alleges that she was never granted legal counsel at any time during the negotiations to sell her payments. The lawsuit, filed in 2019, also alleges that shortly after Liberty bought her payments, her money disappeared in a hip hop investment scam involving the rap artists Cool and Dre, who are also named as defendants in the case. Instead of being used to finance the production of a music album from which she was to receive royalties, it is claimed her money was used to build a swimming pool. Josimar spoke to Edward Stone, the lawyer who is representing Douglas on the case, and is still trying to recover her money from SuttonPark. “They said she was going to have a royalty agreement,” Stone explains. “She’s never seen a dime. We filed a lawsuit alleging they took advantage of a disabled adult and that the whole thing was orchestrated. The payments that Tierra Douglas sold are going to SuttonPark. SuttonPark is basically a great big garbage can in the structured settlement business. They bought up a whole bunch of companies and different payment rights. They are fully aware of what went on here. It’s a sad story with Tierra Douglas because she is penniless now. These companies exploit people.” While all this was going on, 777 were taking their first tentative steps into football, buying a stake in Sevilla FC in 2018. In February of the same year, Joshua Wander was arrested again, this time by the Miami Beach Police Department, for failing to register a motor vehicle. His name then appeared in a 2019 lawsuit in Virginia alleging 777 had entered into an illegal loans business with Rosebud Lending, a predatory lender formed by the economic development arm of the Rosebud Sioux, a federally recognised Native American tribe. Rosebud is accused in court documents seen by Josimar of targeting vulnerable borrowers with payday loans which carry triple-digit interest rates as high as 790 percent. Consumers often renew the loans or take out new loans when they are unable to pay their original loans off, creating a cycle of mounting debt. The lawsuit claims Rosebud: “entered into agreements with 777 Partners… to make and collect on usurious loans under the name Zoca Loans.” It goes on to say: “Upon information and belief, Josh Wander … helped develop the illegal lending business, including negotiating the agreement… and registering the domain name for Zoca Loans.” Rosebud, the case alleges, has made and collected these illegal loans across the USA under several different names, and is organised under the laws of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe “for the dual purposes of avoiding state and federal laws and shielding nontribal participants in the enterprise from liability." Flair Looking for new investment opportunities in other markets, 777 began to branch out into the aviation industry, acquiring a 25% stake in Flair Airlines, a Canadian budget airline, in 2019. But while Flair grew rapidly, it had four Boeing 737 MAX passenger jets repossessed on March 11 of 2023, for which the airline blamed a ‘conspiracy’ and filed a 50 million dollar lawsuit. The jets had been leased to Flair but, according to the lessor, Irish company Airborne Capital, the monthly repayments which should have been made by 777 had failed to materialise. Bailiffs took charge of one plane three hours before its scheduled 7:20 departure from the Region of Waterloo International Airport, with two police vehicles driving out on the tarmac and the flight cancelled, leaving stranded families who were waiting to fly off for a sunshine break in Orlando, Florida, at the beginning of spring break. Whistleblower Jocelyn Harris, Flair’s vice-president of finance until the end of 2020, later claimed that Flair owed 777 Partners around 129 million dollars by the end of 2020, and that the loan came with an interest rate of 18 per cent. She has since filed a wrongful dismissal and harassment lawsuit against the company. Since its investment in Flair, 777 has also acquired Australian low-cost airline Bonza. Again, though, 777 found themselves subject to lawsuits. In a claim filed in Delaware in February of 2023 by Flair’s former Chief Commercial Officer Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, 777 were accused of fraud and breach of contract. The lawsuit also claimed 777 are making money from the airlines they own stakes in by overcharging them through their jet leasing business, 777 Jet Lessors. The case alleges that the company buys Boeing 737s at a discount price of around $42m, and then leases them to its own airlines for 52 million dollars, realising a profit of up to 10 million dollars per plane at the time of delivery. Court papers also claim these airlines would be able to secure less costly leases on the open market – and that intercompany loans at above-market interest rates also generate additional revenue for 777 Partners. These allegations have not yet been proven in court. Joshua Wander and his company now own stakes in multiple football clubs around the world, and invested 7 million punds to take a 45% stake in British Basketball League in December 2021. They also own a controlling interest in the London Lions, a BBL team which won a domestic Treble last season. 777 had been in talks about an investment in the BBL for months, during which time Joshua Wander managed to purchase an $8m penthouse with five bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms at a waterfront boutique condo development on Miami Beach. The property has 5,350 square feet of interior space and 7,697 square feet of terrace space. But records show the purchase, made by Wander and his wife Alison, was financed by a $5m loan from JPMorgan Chase. And one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, has told Josimar that 777’s continued funding of the BBL is in doubt. Allegations against 777, of unpaid bills and late payments in particular, continue to this day. In a lawsuit filed by the Vida Longevity Fund in July 2022, 777 Partners, SuttonPark and subsidiary company Signal Funding are accused of defaulting on a $60m loan taken out almost 18 months prior. The case remains ongoing. So how can 777 survive when so many of its football clubs, airlines, and connected companies seem to be struggling financially? One former 777 employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “All these businesses are losing money. Sport? Losing money. Aviation? Losing money. But who is going to take the loss? The joint venture partners. These guys play a shell-game. They claim to be self financed, to have put their own money into it. But they can’t have as much money as they say they have. It’s just not possible. But they don’t need a lot of money. Because what they really do is shunt money around. It’s a giant shell game. The same money is always out there doing something. And they are running it faster and faster.” 777 claim on their website to be “fearless disruptors” building “a self-sufficient company that is not dependent on banks and third party investors.” Their operations have certainly caused much disruption around the world. But Josimar understands that early funding did come from outside sources, including Boich Investment Group and Leadenhall Capital Partners, a specialist insurance and investments manager with headquarters in London. And sources familiar with 777’s finances also claim that further funding has come from private equity groups – as well as a series of high net-worth individuals who have yet to be named in public. But the same sources ask whether all this is sustainable, a question some fans of 777’s various football clubs are now also asking themselves. Resistance at Red Star To most of the fans of the clubs which have been brought in 777’s sphere of influence, it did make sense, at least to start with. The US investors promised to treat all of their clubs equally. There would be no ‘feeder’ clubs, no pre-established hierarchy which would stifle some for the benefit of others, no instrumentalising and no profiteering. The 777 ‘family of clubs’ would function as an organic network. Not everybody bought into this vision. Certainly not the Ultras of Red Star, a club which was founded in 1897 by future Fifa president Jules Rimet and draws its identity from its unique history of opposition to fascism, and whose Bauer Stadium is named after a Jewish Communist resistant who was executed by the Nazis in 1942. On 15 April 2022, the Red Star Ultras, furious to see their club bought by American capitalists who had zero connection with their history, disrupted a home game against FC Sète by throwing smoke bombs on the field. The match had to be abandoned and, whilst there has been no repetition of this act, opposition to 777’s ownership is as fierce as ever in that corner of the Parisian banlieue. Elsewhere, 777’s involvement has mostly followed the same three-act script. First act, hope. Second, the reality check. Third, disillusionment. The best illustration of this arc is probably what is happening at Vasco de Gama. Vasco’s official statement described it as ‘the biggest transaction in the history of Brazilian football’. 777 had purchased 70% of the club’s shares from Vasco’s majority owner Sociedade Anônima de Futebol in exchange for 700 million Brazilian reais (the equivalent of 150 million US dollars) and committed to take on the club’s debt, which amounted to the same sum. 777 paid 190 of the 700 million reais in 2022, 70 million as a loan in order to bring the club’s bills up to date, the rest as a direct cash injection, in accordance with the schedule agreed upon (*). Joshua Wander had made promises which spoke to the dearest wishes of every fanático vascaíno. In March 2022, he told local media that a forthcoming game against Flamengo would be the last in which Vasco de Gama suffered from a financial disadvantage vis-a-vis its fierce rival. Results on the field of play gave ground for optimism to start with. The grand old carioca club, which had been relegated to Série B of the Campeonato Brasileiro in the 2020-21 season, bounced back immediately and earned promotion – just – as the 4th-best team of the second division. It’s true that the return to the elite level of Brazilian football has been a disappointment so far: at the time of writing, Vasco is ensconced in the relegation zone again, 13 points adrift of Flamengo, 21 behind leader Botafogo. Perhaps some inconsistency was to be expected. But what was not expected was the cash flow problems which soon affected the club, and explain why, today, Vasco is still lagging behind Flamengo, whose wage bill is nearly five times bigger. The last balance sheet available showed liabilities of 773.3 million reais (163 million US dollars) and a deficit of 594.5 million reais (124 million US dollars) as of 31 December 2022. Most of the money put in by 777 appears to have been gobbled up by debt servicing, payment of arrears and operating costs, leaving little to invest in improving the squad. More worryingly, creditors have started lining up to demand payment of their dues – creditors which included clubs who’d sold players to Vasco and were still waiting for payment in May of this year. Two of these clubs, Argentina’s Atletico Tucumán and Uruguay’s Nacional, threatened to bring the matter to Fifa and demand Vasco were punished with a transfer ban should they not pay for, respectively, defenders Manuel Capasso and ‘Puma’ Rodríguez, who cost a combined 3.5 million dollars. Intermediaries in these transfers also appeared not to have been paid. According to local media GE, Vasco is also in arrears in payments due to two of its star players, Andrey Santos and Italian international Lucas Piton. Just a few days ago, local journalist Jorge Nicola has claimed that a 300,000 reais payment due to Naútico for the loan of 21-year-old player Mateus Carvalho had yet to be paid. More recently, on 29 June, the Deliberation Committee of SAF, who still hold under a third of Vasco’s shares, convened an extraordinary meeting to discuss the finances of their club, at which it was revealed that, in November 2022, Vasco SAF had made a loan of 5 million US dollars to a financial services company called F3EA Holdings – which is based in Florida and is part of the 777 Partners group. Though most of this loan had now been repaid, it had been arranged without the knowledge of SAF’s Board of Directors, something which the chairman of SAF’s Deliberation Commitee Carlos Fonseca called ‘an abuse of power’. The reason why a 777 Partners company would need a 5 million dollar loan from one of its own assets was not made clear at the meeting or by 777 Partners themselves, who were not present at the extraordinary meeting. The picture has also been darkened by the serious incidents which marred a recent home defeat to Goías, and saw the Brazilian Superior Court of Sports Justice order that no Vasco fans would be allowed to attend their team’s next five matches. The honeymoon is well and truly over. Problems, problems, problems 777’s reign hasn’t been trouble-free elsewhere either, with Hertha BSC’s a particularly sore case in point. To rub salt in its wounds, the Berlin club saw its neighbour, fan-owned and fan-run Union Berlin, qualifying for the Champions League whilst they finished last of 1. Bundesliga and were relegated. That demotion would have had catastrophic consequences if the German federation had not agreed to the postponement of the repayment of a 40 million euro high-interest loan taken by Hertha. Had the DfB not been that accommodating, 777’s German club would have lost its professional status and been relegated to division 4. The loan has since been renegotiated, so that Hertha have two more years to pay it off, but at an interest rate four per cent higher. Hertha fans do not put the blame of their club’s relegation on the sole shoulders of their new American owners and have pointed at the bizarre decisions (especially in recruitment) taken by its previous owner as the key factor behind the debacle; but many of them expect tough times ahead, as the 2023-24 2. Bundesliga season is shaping up as one of the most competitive in German football history, with big clubs such as Hamburg SV, Hannover 96, Kaiserslautern and Schalke 04 all vying for promotion, for which Hertha will not be one of the favourites, as it’s not clear that 777 has either the means or the intention to pump more money into the club. German magazine Kicker even suggested that Josh Wander could call on outside investors – including Saudi sovereign fund PIF – to prop up the finances of Hertha BSC. Even when their performances have shown improvement, other 777 clubs have had and still have their share of problems and controversy. Genoa was relegated, then promoted to Serie A after a single season spent in the second division, but this achievement of sorts came on the heels of a one-point deduction imposed mid-season by the Italian federation after Genoa missed the 16 December deadline set for paying its income tax. The club pleaded guilty and has since settled its debt to the treasury. Last, Sevilla, with another Europa League to add to their extraordinary tally, are not seen as a 777 ‘success story’. The US fund is only a minority shareholder in the Andalucian club, and its main contribution to its recent history has been attempts to gain influence within the board of the club which have been met with considerable local opposition. Hard as they may try, controversy is never far away whenever and wherever 777 are involved. Josh Wander, SuttonPark and 777 Partners were contacted for comment. (*) And not 12%, as 777’s representative on the board of Sevilla FC Andrés Blazquéz, who is also Genoa CFC’s president, has claimed in media interviews. (*) 777’s stake in Hertha BSC is now 78.8%, included shares which were acquired from other shareholders. (*) In US dollars, Sevilla, 65m (estimated); Genoa, 175m; Vasco de Gama, 137m; Standard, 55m; Red Star, 19m; Hertha BSC, 374m (estimated); Melbourne Victory, 6.1m (raising to 21m). (*) 777 committed to injecting an extra 120 million reales in 2023 (due in September), 270 million in 2024 and the last tranche of 120 million in 2025, when the club is supposed to break even.