EVERTON FC has to win its case in the planning inquiry or face a slide out of the football elite, acting chief executive Robert Elstone believes.

On the eve of the inquiry into the club’s £400m bid to relocate to Kirkby, Mr Elstone took the Daily Post on an exclusive tour of Goodison Park to underscore his view that the move is vital to the club’s future.

He said: “The Premier League is moving at a phenomenal pace and that’s because of clubs which have billionaire benefactors or modern stadiums which they’re able to fill.

“Everton has neither.

“We’re struggling to keep pace with our rivals and with the economics of this league.

“Everton has a hugely loyal fanbase, but other clubs can come together on match day in more modern facilities with a greater capacity than we have at our disposal.”

He pauses to point at a series of pillars blocking the view of the pitch from a stand of wooden seating which belongs to another era of football.

If you duck low enough, Mr Elstone explains, you can see the corporate boxes on the far side of the pitch. “Those boxes are the most obvious weakness we have. Everyone knows how incredibly important it is to the development of the club to bring in the corporate side. But Goodison is in the lowest two or three clubs in the league in terms of corporate hospitality space.”

Then he takes me into the away team changing rooms. Cramped and poorly lit, they are as basic as a Conference side’s facilities.

He simply spreads his arms: “Can you imagine Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo all crammed in here when Manchester United come to play? This is just not the standard you would expect of a club in the Premier League.”

Back up in the hospitality suites, he opens a door into a kitchen that might just double up as a primary school canteen. He adds: “There’s nothing like this in any other club in the league.”

Critics of Destination Kirkby have not disputed these points.