Peter Johnson, the former owner and chairman of Everton and Tranmere Rovers, has died at the age of 84 his family have announced.
In a the family said that he “died peacefully surrounded by his partner Mel and daughters Susie, Kate and Charlotte.”
Johnson, a successful local businessmen who built a hamper foods empire, Park Foods, in Birkenhead, acquired a controlling 68% stake in Everton in 1994 and brought with him the hope that he could finance the club’s return to the pinnacle of the domestic game after seven fallow years without a major trophy.
He famously hired Joe Royle to replace Mike Walker just months after taking the helm and the Goodison legend lead the Toffees to FA Cup glory in 1995.
The heady optimism that followed, with the likes of Andrei Kanchelskis, Nick Barmby and Gary Speed arriving on the heels of Daniel Amokachi and Vinny Samways in big-money deals, failed to materialised, however, and Royle departed in March 1997 following a poor run of form.
Royle was replaced by Walter Smith but the Scot’s tenure was hamstrung by increasing cash-flow problems that ultimately forced Johnson to sell the club to Bill Kenwright’s consortium in 1999 and he returned to his first love, Tranmere.
