Everton face a black hole of up to £300million in their playing budget in the coming years due to the sanctioning of oligarch Alisher Usmanov, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Usmanov was due to sign a naming rights deal for the club's ambitious new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium via his USM firm.
A 'heads of terms' agreement is understood to have been agreed with options that would give USM a minimum 10-year deal, extendable to 20 years, at a minimum cost of £8m per year, increasing under certain circumstances to £15m a year.
The club's plans for their new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium have been rocked by his exit
Had a 20-year deal unfolded at the highest price payable, Everton would have benefitted by £300m, and this was envisaged to be spent on players.