(Source: The Athletic)
Written by Greg O'Keeffe
Source: The Athletic
原文标题：From Uzbek prison to a billionaire friend of Putin – the story of Alisher Usmanov
Due to the need for expression, some deletions and adjustments have been made to the original text
Alischer Usmanov once likened his support for Everton to "embracing a new love."
The billionaire from Uzbekistan was once Arsenal's second-largest shareholder. After being forced to sell Arsenal, he helped business partner Farhad Moshiri (Everton boss) breathe new life into Everton, and he himself found new "happiness" in the process.
However, the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has led to the sanctions of many people associated with Russia. Because of his close ties with Putin, Usmanov was inevitably drawn into it, and his assets in the European Union, the United States and Britain were frozen.
Forced by the situation, Everton announced on March 2, Beijing time, that it would stop all commercial contracts with UsM, a holding company in Usmanov, and its subsidiaries MegaFon and Yota. The massive Megafon logo outside the Court at Goodison Park has been removed, and the logo outside the Finch Farm training base has been removed.
And it also means that his sweetness with Everton may have come to an end. One person close to him said it was "another shame" for a football-loving person to be disenfranchised from all ties to Everton.
For a long time, Usmanov has been the big man behind Everton. His withdrawal is bound to have an unpredictable impact on Everton.
▲ Goodison Park is demolishing megaFon logo (Credit: The Athletic)
01 From a prisoner to a billionaire
A self-made billionaire? A financial oligarch? A criminal who has been in jail? An avid football fan? Usmanov seems to have all of the above labels. But in the eyes of others, the rich man who ranks 99th on the Forbes rich list is actually difficult to define.
Usmanov was born in 1953 in the city of Zust in Eastern Uzbekistan, when Uzbekistan was still part of the former Soviet Union, and his father was deputy prosecutor general in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
After graduating from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations with a degree in international law, he returned to Uzbekistan to prepare for a big show. At the age of 26, however, he was arrested and imprisoned for fraud and theft of socialist property, serving a six-year sentence. He has always insisted that he is innocent and that he is only a victim of political repression.
In 2000, Uzbekistan's Supreme Court overturned charges against him. From then on, he began to move on to business.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Usmanov earned his first pot of gold by manufacturing plastic bags, then went into the diamond and iron ore mining business and became one of the major shareholders of Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom. He then founded USM Holdings, which extended his business tentacles into steel, telecommunications and investment.
▲ USM began naming Finch Farm, Everton's training ground, in 2017. (Source: The Standard)
At the same time, he also has a strong interest in investing in the Internet. As one of Facebook's early investors, Usmanov also held shares in technology companies including Apple, Alibaba, Xiaomi and others. His own investment preference for Internet companies is "long-term optimism and long-term holding".
02 Football dreams of sports fans
Usmanov has been associated with sports since childhood, and before becoming a rich man, he was a sabre-spinner. In the 1970s, he was also selected for the Uzbekistan Fencing Team. Last November, the 68-year-old Usmanov was elected president of the International Fencing Federation for the fourth time, and IOC President Thomas Bach praised him, saying he played an important role in the development of fencing around the world. Bach is true, according to the IOC estimates, Usmanov donated around £65 million to the International Fencing Federation (FIE) over three Olympic cycles.
However, after the European Union announced sanctions against him, Usmanov temporarily resigned as president in a statement on the official website of the International Fencing Federation. "I consider such a decision to be unfair and the grounds used to justify the sanctions are a series of false and defamatory allegations that have damaged my honour, dignity and business reputation," he wrote. "I will use all legal means to protect my honor and reputation."
▲ Bach (right) and Usmanov. (Source: The Short Fuse)
In addition to fencing, another sport that makes Usmanov really pay attention is football.
In the summer of 2007, Usmanov's name began to appear in English football. At the time, there were rumors that he was going to invest in a Premier League club. In August, he teamed up with business partner Moshiri to buy a 14.58% stake in the club from former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dane for £75 million, making him the second-largest shareholder of the premier league's old club. At that time, he was ambitious and said that he wanted to fully own the club in the future.
At first, some people inside the club openly opposed Usmanov's joining, questioning the source of his assets. "He's not a completely transparent guy, business in Uzbekistan is complicated and we can't judge that's why I object to him joining Arsenal." Arsenal's late chairman Peter Hill Wood wrote in the Guardian that year opposing Usmanov's joining the club.
Some of those who have dealt with Usmanov have taken the opposite view, in their view, usmanov's wealth accumulation relies on open market transactions rather than on the seizure of huge natural assets of the state.
His former partner added: "Arischer is very proficient in football and passionate. ...... I don't think he joined a club to make a lot of money, but to make a lot of money, but to make a longer-term development for the club. ”
As a result, more people believe that if Usmanov can take over Arsenal, he will follow the example of Chelsea boss Abramovich and spend a lot of time and money to run the club, rather than using it as a short-term investment. Usmanov's strategy was exactly like that, as he slowly increased his holdings to finally launch a full-blown acquisition of the club. By June 2011, his stake in Arsenal had increased to 29 percent.
Arsenal boss Stan Klenk, however, is constantly shattering Usmanov's dreams. Taking advantage of the board's hatred of Usmanov, Kroenke took the club's stake step by step and became Arsenal's number one shareholder in 2009. At the same time, he always kept Usmanov out of the boardroom.
In 2017, Usmanov again offered to buy a stake in Kroenke's club, which the American businessman again refused. After all attempts to take over the controlling stake failed, the disheartened Usmanov accepted kroenke's £550 million offer in 2018 to sell all of his Arsenal shares.
Kroenke (left) and Usmanov. (Source: Daily Mail)
After losing Arsenal, Usmanov did not give up on his football dreams. He set his sights on another Premier League team, Everton, whose old friend Moshiri is the club's owner.
This time, Usmanov changed the form of support for the team. Through sponsorship, he has spread his company USM's brand among Everton's various assets. It is reported that his company will pay 12 million pounds a year to sponsor Everton's training ground, in addition to 30 million pounds in 2020 to obtain the naming rights of the club's new stadium, and MegaFon and Yota are also sponsors of Everton women's football team.
According to Everton's 19/20 earnings, the team's commercial revenue reached a record £63.7 million, second only to the Premier League Big 6, of which at least 42 million was conservatively estimated to come from Usmanov's property.
Therefore, after the sanctions, not only is Usmanov's football dream shattered again, but the future of Everton is even more unpredictable.
03 Sanctions, internal and external difficulties
In an interview with the Financial Times two years ago, Usmanov said: "When I experienced something more dangerous, I would not take these sanctions to heart." Although I am reluctant to participate in politics, I will not give in. ”
When asked about his relationship with Putin, he did not shy away from supporting Putin, "I have great respect for him, I think he is the number one leader in the world today, he needs a stable country." In a previous interview with Forbes, he said: "I am proud that I know Putin. Everyone didn't like him, but it wasn't his problem. ”
That is why the European Commission described it as a "pro-Kremlin oligarch" who "actively supports Russian policymakers materially or financially." As a result, he has also attracted sanctions from organizations and countries such as the European Union and the United States.
▲ Putin (left) and Usmanov. (Source: The Athletic)
On March 3, local time, British Foreign Secretary Liz Tras announced a comprehensive freeze on Usmanov's assets and a ban on travel. The European Union demanded that Everton immediately suspend its sponsorship of Usmanov. Under pressure from multiple parties, Everton had to suspend the club's cooperation with USM. Everton boss Moshiri also resigned as chairman of USM and left the board.
According to the Daily Mail, the termination of the cooperation will cause Everton to face a financial void of 300 million pounds, and the construction of the new stadium is far away. At the same time, the team also needs to find new sponsors to fill the deficit in commercial revenue. It can be said that without Usmanov, Everton's life was not good.
Usmanov is even more troubled at home and abroad, and the banking systems of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have expanded the scope of his review in order to find clues to the remittances sent to him by relatives and friends. Because it is a crime to provide financial assistance to those who have been sanctioned.
It is still unknown where Usmanov is, but if he were still in England, he could live in his property. However, due to the freezing of his assets, it will be difficult for him to ensure his basic livelihood. In line with previous British government practices, in some cases the government will consider issuing "basic survival permits" to sanctioned persons so that they have enough money to buy food, pay for heating and repay mortgages. But in the face of such unprecedented sanctions, it is uncertain that Usmanov will receive this "preferential treatment.".
Admittedly, the scope of the sanctions has exceeded its original intention. When football is no longer "pure", Usmanov's dream of football is only one dream left...