91Èȱ¬

Everton's move to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock has been confirmed to be the start of the 2025-26 season.

The Toffees had kept option to move in during the 2024-25 campaign open, but that will now be the final full season at Goodison Park instead.

The decision not to move mid-season was driven by commercial and logistical reasons, and supporter feedback.

The Merseyside club say the 52,888-capacity stadium remains on schedule to be completed by the end of 2024.

"Firstly, and to be absolutely clear, our decision to not move in mid-season is not because of a construction delay," said interim chief executive Colin Chong.

"It is a club decision driven by a combination of commercial insight, a comprehensive review of the logistics required, an analysis of the potential impact upon our football operations and, importantly, fan feedback sourced as part of our recent stadium migration survey."

Everton added there will be a series of events to mark their departure from Goodison Park, their home since 1892, throughout the 2024-25 season.

The club has been deducted 10 points from the Premier League after an independent commission found Everton's losses to 2021-22 amounted to £124.5m, with English top-flight clubs only permitted to lose £105m over three years.

Everton believe interest payments on money borrowed to build the club's new £760m stadium at Bramley Moore Dock were permissible 'add backs' for profit and sustainability calculations in the 2021-22 financial year.

But the commission disagreed and did not accept the club's claim of mitigating factors such as compliance with the Premier League process over the past two years.

Everton are the only current top-flight club to be building a new stadium.

Costs for the project have increased from £500m to £760m.