Stay in control of the latest Blues news with our Everton newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Robb Heineman, CEO of the group who were linked with a takeover bid of Everton this week, has suggested there are “legitimate groups” interested in buying the Blues.

Heineman, who is chief executive of the Sporting Club which own Major League Soccer team Sporting Kansas City, has also admitted he considered striking a deal with Bill Kenwright for the club in August, but is adamant a deal was never close.

The organisation was linked with a £225m takeover by the BBC on Friday, but Heineman, who has been on the board since 2006, has now confirmed that the timing was not right.

Interestingly, however, the American believes there are other potential interested parties.

“I actually think there are a couple of legitimate groups that are talking to Bill Kenwright right now about buying the team,” he told ESPN. “But I think there are some serious groups that are in the mix and I think it will get solved in the next few months.

“I think we’re going to keep looking at stuff in the EPL for sure. The thing about Everton is it’s such a solid foundation of fans, such a solid foundation as a club.

“From a profit standpoint they’re a very profitable club in the EPL, which isn’t always the case. It was very intriguing, and Liverpool is a beautiful place. So for all those reasons it made some sense, but at the end of the day it just wasn’t the right thing.”

'We went back to talk to Bill Kenwright'

Sporting Club are the organisation behind Sporting Kansas City, the Major League Soccer franchise based in Missouri.

Heineman was pictured at Duncan Ferguson’s testimonial in August along with other members of Sporting Club, some of who are Blues fans.

But after taking to Twitter to dampen rumours, he then fully explained the situation.

He added: “We went over there in August, and we’re always opportunistic with opportunities like that. Was it ever close? No. Was it something that we still think about here and there? Sure. But do I actually think we’re seriously in the running for it? No.

“We went back [to Everton in August] to talk to Bill Kenwright about exploring if there was an opportunity for us. We had a good talk, learned a lot, but the timing probably just didn’t work out really well for us.

“It probably wasn’t the right set of circumstances, wasn’t the right price, we probably weren’t ready to pull the trigger. There are a lot of different things that just led us to think that it’s not the time for us to do it right now.”