Bulld0gs Liverpool Thread

[pillapow]

Roll on the World Cup..... I hope Carragher gets picked, What a solid defence we would have.

[opsmonkey]

I received this email today.. makes very worrying reading whatever side of the managerial fence you sit.. It's pretty big but stick with it..

The State of Liverpool FC ? An Idiots Guide

While "senior sources" at the club (Christan Purslow) try to facilitate a smear campaign against the manager, pretend everything is rosy at the club and briefs the press to headline the Rick Parry pay off on the day the club's financial's are tactically released on election results day; here's what's really going on at Liverpool Football Club:

Figures released on Friday 8th May 2010 indicate that Liverpool FC is in net debt to the tune of ?351m; an increase of ?52m from last year?s figure.

A total of ?233.996m is owed to RBS, in addition to an inter-company loan of ?144.441m owed to ?Kop Cayman?; a company owned by Gillett and Hicks based in the Cayman Island for tax reasons; a company that have loaned Liverpool FC ?144.441m at an interest rate of 10%. This is the ?own money? that Gillett and Hicks claim to have put into the club. In reality, they?re just charging the club 10% interest for lending that money through an offshore limited liability company that they aren?t even personally liable for ? Liverpool FC are.

Liverpool FC are not paying the interest off on that ?144.4m however. It is being charged as a ?compound interest?, meaning the interest isn?t paid, but is instead ?rolled up? to the grand total. For example, this year (if I?ve got this right):

?144.4m @ 10% interest = ?14.44m payable this year.

Instead of paying that ?14.44m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?158.88m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

?158.88m @ 10% interest = ?15.88m payable next year.

Instead of paying that ?15.88m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?174.76m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

?174.76m @ 10% interest = ?17.76m payable next year.

Instead of paying that ?17.76m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?192.52m etc etc etc...

The debt soon spirals out of control, as you can see; and don?t forget, this only concerns the ?144.4m owed to Gillett and Hick?s Cayman Islands company ? it doesn?t concern the huge ?234m owed to RBS.

The financial figures released last week are for the 2008/09 season.

Those figures declare the club made a loss of around ?52m for that year, due to the interest repayments on the loans and another ?22m spent on the new ground; on what that was spent on we have no idea. There?s nothing to show for it anyway ? and the total spend on the new ground now exceeds ?50m. To put that into perspective ? Sunderland managed to build the 48,000 seat Stadium of Light for a lot less than that. We have a few fences up at the back of the Anfield Road End!

Anyway ? we made a loss of ?52m that year despite finishing 2nd in the league and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. The accounts also declared a profit made on player transfers (despite Purslow telling us we don?t need to sell players to balance the books and service debt, and Rafa being accused of wasting millions on players ? the accounts prove otherwise).

What are next year?s figures (which will reflect the financial state we?re in today) going to look like with a 7th place league finish and an early elimination from the Champions League? We will also have an increased debt to service as explained above.

Then what about the figures for the next financial year when there?s no Champions League money at all coming in?

While the current owners are in place, we are going to continue to fall further and further into debt. We cannot meet the repayments on the loan as it stands now, and with our revenue due to fall with the lack of Champions League football, we?re on the brink of going into administration.

Anyone with hopes of making any signings in the summer or any future transfer windows needs a reality check. We are going to be very lucky to hold onto the players we?ve got, never mind being able to bring anybody else in.

Gerrard and Torres don?t want to leave because they don?t like the manager (Purslow is feeding this story to the media to whip up the ?Rafa Out campaign?); they want to leave as they know there is zero chance of any new players of any quality arriving at the club in its current state. They also know there?s zero chance of any top class manager coming to the club if Benitez decides to walk or is pushed; no manager worth his salt would come to work at the club under these conditions. They know the club is only going one way.

Until Gillett and Hicks are removed from the club, we?re only going to decline. It really is as simple as that. Nothing else matters.

And remember ? these debts haven?t been accumulated through overspending in trying to buy success and compete like was the case at Portsmouth, Leeds and various other clubs ? they are entirely generated through debt loaded onto the club just so Gillett and Hicks can own us and bleed us dry with expense claims, management fees, arrangement fees for every refinance deal and wasting over ?50m of the club?s money on a non-existent new stadium.

This isn?t the result of bad individual club management as Richard Scudamore of The Premier League claims; it is the result of a leveraged buyout that has loaded the cost of buying the club onto the club to repay. Something The Premier League, The FA, UEFA and FIFA should be doing everything in their power to prevent ever happening again.


2007: ?44m debt (?3m per year to service)
2008: ?350m debt (?36.5m per year to service)
2009: ?378m debt (?40m per year to service)
2010: ???

Those are the levels of debt on the club, with it being only ?44m before Gillett and Hicks bought the club. Therefore the club?s profits were able to be invested back into the squad, allowing us to compete on the pitch. We?re now crippled by debts we cannot service, when that ?40m leaving the club each year in interest repayments should be being spent on new players.

?76.5m has left the club in interest repayments alone in the past 2 years ? and in that time ? the manager has not spent a single penny on new players. It?s been a sell to buy policy, with profits being made on transfers in the past few transfer windows as the books needed to be balanced; all while the clubs around us are spending to strengthen. How can we be expected to compete under those conditions?

The debt is growing with every passing day. As a result of the lack of investment in the squad (as well as bad luck with injuries / poor decisions / players out of form etc), we?re paying the price on the field with declining performances which will therefore reduce the club?s revenue even further ? giving us even less money to service increasing debts. A vicious circle. It?s unsustainable.

Liverpool FC is paying ?110,000 every single day in interest repayments to service a debt we should never have in the first place. That?s ?110,000 a day of the club?s money that me and you generate, that we should be seeing spent on new players or developing the club; instead ? we are standing back and watching the club being raped in front of our very eyes.

YANKS OUT!

[chang]

oh yes. thanks

[lfc4life]

I received this email today.. makes very worrying reading whatever side of the managerial fence you sit.. It's pretty big but stick with it..

The State of Liverpool FC – An Idiots Guide

While "senior sources" at the club (Christan Purslow) try to facilitate a smear campaign against the manager, pretend everything is rosy at the club and briefs the press to headline the Rick Parry pay off on the day the club's financial's are tactically released on election results day; here's what's really going on at Liverpool Football Club:

Figures released on Friday 8th May 2010 indicate that Liverpool FC is in net debt to the tune of ?351m; an increase of ?52m from last year’s figure.

A total of ?233.996m is owed to RBS, in addition to an inter-company loan of ?144.441m owed to “Kop Cayman”; a company owned by Gillett and Hicks based in the Cayman Island for tax reasons; a company that have loaned Liverpool FC ?144.441m at an interest rate of 10%. This is the “own money” that Gillett and Hicks claim to have put into the club. In reality, they’re just charging the club 10% interest for lending that money through an offshore limited liability company that they aren’t even personally liable for – Liverpool FC are.

Liverpool FC are not paying the interest off on that ?144.4m however. It is being charged as a “compound interest”, meaning the interest isn’t paid, but is instead “rolled up” to the grand total. For example, this year (if I’ve got this right):

?144.4m @ 10% interest = ?14.44m payable this year.

Instead of paying that ?14.44m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?158.88m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

?158.88m @ 10% interest = ?15.88m payable next year.

Instead of paying that ?15.88m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?174.76m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

?174.76m @ 10% interest = ?17.76m payable next year.

Instead of paying that ?17.76m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?192.52m etc etc etc...

The debt soon spirals out of control, as you can see; and don’t forget, this only concerns the ?144.4m owed to Gillett and Hick’s Cayman Islands company – it doesn’t concern the huge ?234m owed to RBS.

The financial figures released last week are for the 2008/09 season.

Those figures declare the club made a loss of around ?52m for that year, due to the interest repayments on the loans and another ?22m spent on the new ground; on what that was spent on we have no idea. There’s nothing to show for it anyway – and the total spend on the new ground now exceeds ?50m. To put that into perspective – Sunderland managed to build the 48,000 seat Stadium of Light for a lot less than that. We have a few fences up at the back of the Anfield Road End!

Anyway – we made a loss of ?52m that year despite finishing 2nd in the league and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. The accounts also declared a profit made on player transfers (despite Purslow telling us we don’t need to sell players to balance the books and service debt, and Rafa being accused of wasting millions on players – the accounts prove otherwise).

What are next year’s figures (which will reflect the financial state we’re in today) going to look like with a 7th place league finish and an early elimination from the Champions League? We will also have an increased debt to service as explained above.

Then what about the figures for the next financial year when there’s no Champions League money at all coming in?

While the current owners are in place, we are going to continue to fall further and further into debt. We cannot meet the repayments on the loan as it stands now, and with our revenue due to fall with the lack of Champions League football, we’re on the brink of going into administration.

Anyone with hopes of making any signings in the summer or any future transfer windows needs a reality check. We are going to be very lucky to hold onto the players we’ve got, never mind being able to bring anybody else in.

Gerrard and Torres don’t want to leave because they don’t like the manager (Purslow is feeding this story to the media to whip up the “Rafa Out campaign”); they want to leave as they know there is zero chance of any new players of any quality arriving at the club in its current state. They also know there’s zero chance of any top class manager coming to the club if Benitez decides to walk or is pushed; no manager worth his salt would come to work at the club under these conditions. They know the club is only going one way.

Until Gillett and Hicks are removed from the club, we’re only going to decline. It really is as simple as that. Nothing else matters.

And remember – these debts haven’t been accumulated through overspending in trying to buy success and compete like was the case at Portsmouth, Leeds and various other clubs – they are entirely generated through debt loaded onto the club just so Gillett and Hicks can own us and bleed us dry with expense claims, management fees, arrangement fees for every refinance deal and wasting over ?50m of the club’s money on a non-existent new stadium.

This isn’t the result of bad individual club management as Richard Scudamore of The Premier League claims; it is the result of a leveraged buyout that has loaded the cost of buying the club onto the club to repay. Something The Premier League, The FA, UEFA and FIFA should be doing everything in their power to prevent ever happening again.


2007: ?44m debt (?3m per year to service)
2008: ?350m debt (?36.5m per year to service)
2009: ?378m debt (?40m per year to service)
2010: ???

Those are the levels of debt on the club, with it being only ?44m before Gillett and Hicks bought the club. Therefore the club’s profits were able to be invested back into the squad, allowing us to compete on the pitch. We’re now crippled by debts we cannot service, when that ?40m leaving the club each year in interest repayments should be being spent on new players.

?76.5m has left the club in interest repayments alone in the past 2 years – and in that time – the manager has not spent a single penny on new players. It’s been a sell to buy policy, with profits being made on transfers in the past few transfer windows as the books needed to be balanced; all while the clubs around us are spending to strengthen. How can we be expected to compete under those conditions?

The debt is growing with every passing day. As a result of the lack of investment in the squad (as well as bad luck with injuries / poor decisions / players out of form etc), we’re paying the price on the field with declining performances which will therefore reduce the club’s revenue even further – giving us even less money to service increasing debts. A vicious circle. It’s unsustainable.

Liverpool FC is paying ?110,000 every single day in interest repayments to service a debt we should never have in the first place. That’s ?110,000 a day of the club’s money that me and you generate, that we should be seeing spent on new players or developing the club; instead – we are standing back and watching the club being raped in front of our very eyes.

YANKS OUT!

And no one in there right mind will buy the club with that amount of debt and who can blame them!!! AND the owners supposedly want too sell the club and not pay off any of that debt??? DREAM ON!

[opsmonkey]

Just came accross this story.. Heartbreaking.. The lad was only 22... Sleep well Besian x RIP

Former Liverpool starlet Besian Idrizaj dies after heart attack, aged 22 | Mail Online

[cloudnineuk54]

Just came accross this story.. Heartbreaking.. The lad was only 22... Sleep well Besian x RIP

Former Liverpool starlet Besian Idrizaj dies after heart attack, aged 22 | Mail Online

so sad life can be so cruel at times,rip

[koppit]

gillet and hicks will be pushed out by rbs when they call in the loan,The EU’s top competition enforcer, Neelie Kroes, warned that if the bank failed to meet 2013 targets to restore healthy, natural order to its balance sheet, her successor Joaquin Almunia would not hesitate to take fresh action.g+h have cooked the books so that they cant faill to make a profit

[wongers]

unconfirmed reports coming in are suggesting that due to the political precedent being set at westminster with the tories and the lib dems man utd are asking the f.a.can they combine their league points with hull city and declare themselves champions

[thered]

unconfirmed reports coming in are suggesting that due to the political precedent being set at westminster with the tories and the lib dems man utd are asking the f.a.can they combine their league points with hull city and declare themselves champions

and why not

[thered]

I received this email today.. makes very worrying reading whatever side of the managerial fence you sit.. It's pretty big but stick with it..

The State of Liverpool FC ? An Idiots Guide

While "senior sources" at the club (Christan Purslow) try to facilitate a smear campaign against the manager, pretend everything is rosy at the club and briefs the press to headline the Rick Parry pay off on the day the club's financial's are tactically released on election results day; here's what's really going on at Liverpool Football Club:

Figures released on Friday 8th May 2010 indicate that Liverpool FC is in net debt to the tune of ?351m; an increase of ?52m from last year?s figure.

A total of ?233.996m is owed to RBS, in addition to an inter-company loan of ?144.441m owed to ?Kop Cayman?; a company owned by Gillett and Hicks based in the Cayman Island for tax reasons; a company that have loaned Liverpool FC ?144.441m at an interest rate of 10%. This is the ?own money? that Gillett and Hicks claim to have put into the club. In reality, they?re just charging the club 10% interest for lending that money through an offshore limited liability company that they aren?t even personally liable for ? Liverpool FC are.

Liverpool FC are not paying the interest off on that ?144.4m however. It is being charged as a ?compound interest?, meaning the interest isn?t paid, but is instead ?rolled up? to the grand total. For example, this year (if I?ve got this right):

?144.4m @ 10% interest = ?14.44m payable this year.

Instead of paying that ?14.44m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?158.88m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

?158.88m @ 10% interest = ?15.88m payable next year.

Instead of paying that ?15.88m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?174.76m. The following year this is then charged at a further 10% interest:

?174.76m @ 10% interest = ?17.76m payable next year.

Instead of paying that ?17.76m, it is rolled onto the total making the outstanding debt owed to Kop Cayman ?192.52m etc etc etc...

The debt soon spirals out of control, as you can see; and don?t forget, this only concerns the ?144.4m owed to Gillett and Hick?s Cayman Islands company ? it doesn?t concern the huge ?234m owed to RBS.

The financial figures released last week are for the 2008/09 season.

Those figures declare the club made a loss of around ?52m for that year, due to the interest repayments on the loans and another ?22m spent on the new ground; on what that was spent on we have no idea. There?s nothing to show for it anyway ? and the total spend on the new ground now exceeds ?50m. To put that into perspective ? Sunderland managed to build the 48,000 seat Stadium of Light for a lot less than that. We have a few fences up at the back of the Anfield Road End!

Anyway ? we made a loss of ?52m that year despite finishing 2nd in the league and reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. The accounts also declared a profit made on player transfers (despite Purslow telling us we don?t need to sell players to balance the books and service debt, and Rafa being accused of wasting millions on players ? the accounts prove otherwise).

What are next year?s figures (which will reflect the financial state we?re in today) going to look like with a 7th place league finish and an early elimination from the Champions League? We will also have an increased debt to service as explained above.

Then what about the figures for the next financial year when there?s no Champions League money at all coming in?

While the current owners are in place, we are going to continue to fall further and further into debt. We cannot meet the repayments on the loan as it stands now, and with our revenue due to fall with the lack of Champions League football, we?re on the brink of going into administration.

Anyone with hopes of making any signings in the summer or any future transfer windows needs a reality check. We are going to be very lucky to hold onto the players we?ve got, never mind being able to bring anybody else in.

Gerrard and Torres don?t want to leave because they don?t like the manager (Purslow is feeding this story to the media to whip up the ?Rafa Out campaign?); they want to leave as they know there is zero chance of any new players of any quality arriving at the club in its current state. They also know there?s zero chance of any top class manager coming to the club if Benitez decides to walk or is pushed; no manager worth his salt would come to work at the club under these conditions. They know the club is only going one way.

Until Gillett and Hicks are removed from the club, we?re only going to decline. It really is as simple as that. Nothing else matters.

And remember ? these debts haven?t been accumulated through overspending in trying to buy success and compete like was the case at Portsmouth, Leeds and various other clubs ? they are entirely generated through debt loaded onto the club just so Gillett and Hicks can own us and bleed us dry with expense claims, management fees, arrangement fees for every refinance deal and wasting over ?50m of the club?s money on a non-existent new stadium.

This isn?t the result of bad individual club management as Richard Scudamore of The Premier League claims; it is the result of a leveraged buyout that has loaded the cost of buying the club onto the club to repay. Something The Premier League, The FA, UEFA and FIFA should be doing everything in their power to prevent ever happening again.


2007: ?44m debt (?3m per year to service)
2008: ?350m debt (?36.5m per year to service)
2009: ?378m debt (?40m per year to service)
2010: ???

Those are the levels of debt on the club, with it being only ?44m before Gillett and Hicks bought the club. Therefore the club?s profits were able to be invested back into the squad, allowing us to compete on the pitch. We?re now crippled by debts we cannot service, when that ?40m leaving the club each year in interest repayments should be being spent on new players.

?76.5m has left the club in interest repayments alone in the past 2 years ? and in that time ? the manager has not spent a single penny on new players. It?s been a sell to buy policy, with profits being made on transfers in the past few transfer windows as the books needed to be balanced; all while the clubs around us are spending to strengthen. How can we be expected to compete under those conditions?

The debt is growing with every passing day. As a result of the lack of investment in the squad (as well as bad luck with injuries / poor decisions / players out of form etc), we?re paying the price on the field with declining performances which will therefore reduce the club?s revenue even further ? giving us even less money to service increasing debts. A vicious circle. It?s unsustainable.

Liverpool FC is paying ?110,000 every single day in interest repayments to service a debt we should never have in the first place. That?s ?110,000 a day of the club?s money that me and you generate, that we should be seeing spent on new players or developing the club; instead ? we are standing back and watching the club being raped in front of our very eyes.

YANKS OUT!

interesting read seen as we are in what seems a very similar situation only with even bigger debts

i bet everyone who cried when SKY were gonna buy us are gutted now last count i heard was ?716 million in debt which is going onwards and upwards

so i am in totall agreement with you the yanks need forcing out the government blocked sky buying us and IMO they need to step in and at least if they cant do anything now make sure anything like this never happens again

[wongers]

on this theme have a look at the letter below its a bit long winded but stick with it its interesting not only for l.f.c. but all football clubs






Premier League Meeting
Wednesday 12th May 2010


The Spirit Of Shankly is to meet with representatives of the Premier League, including Chief Executive Richard Scudamore, this week to discuss the issues recently raised with them in our letter and email campaign (See letter below).

Thousands of our members emailed questions to them and underlined how their lack of regulation was continuing to have a negative impact on our football club. This forced the Premier League into listening to us, and the Union's Executive Committee has been invited to meet with them.

At the meeting we intend to ask the questions put in our email and letter campaign and in particular why past and present conduct in running other sporting Clubs has little relevance to the fit and proper test, why lies to the sellers of the Club and supporters have no relevance to the test and most importantly in light of the Premier League's own rules, what impact the last two sets of qualified accounts have had on Premier League governance rules.

Once the meeting has taken place we will report to our members so they can know exactly what has been discussed. We will do our best to get answers as to why the Premier League are continuing to allow the deteriorating situation at Liverpool, and ask them what they are doing about it.

We find their lack of regulation staggering, and we will urge them to prevent the situation arising again - We do not want another Tom and George, we want 'fit and proper' owners. After all, it's our football club, it's our game, and on behalf of our members we are going to have our say.

Our Letter to Premier League


Dear Premier League


The Spirit Of Shankly, the Liverpool Supporters Union, was set up following the growing anger and upset at how Tom Hicks and George Gillett were running our club, how they had reneged on the 'promises' made when purchasing our football club.

It is due to our present owners that I find myself contacting you now. Liverpool FC is a club rich in history and tradition with a legacy unrivalled around the world. Yet supporters, the true owners and custodians of the club, find themselves worrying about off the pitch matters, which a financially prudent business is supposed to manage, and those who run the game are meant to regulate.

Please cast your mind back to February 2007, when Tom Hicks and George Gillett took charge of Liverpool Football Club, presumably they will have been subject to the Premier League's 'Fit and Proper' persons test. Just what exactly were Tom Hicks and George Gillett asked at the time? What checks were made about their background and suitability to own our Club? Are they 'Fit and Proper' when the following are considered:


•Tom Hicks' past dealing with the Brazilian club Corinthians. His involvement at Corinthians, as part of Hicks Muse Tate Furst's partnership with the club, is what many of Corinthians fans blame for their subsequent financial problems. Tom Hicks said “We all collectively take guilt for bad decisions’’. Banners at Anfield today ask for Tom Hicks to leave the club, something Corinthians fans were asking many years ago (http://www.fiel-salvador.hpg.com.br/...rattini_AE.jpg). Why did the Premier League not know of this, nor learn a lesson from his previous enterprises?
•Hicks Sports Group, Tom Hicks' company which owns the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars defaulted on $525m worth of loans last year which resulted in the Texas Rangers having to seek a loan from Major League Baseball (governing body for the sport).
•Both Hicks and Gillett have been made bankrupt on several occasions. Should their track records not set alarm bells ringing?
•Four days after the Hicks and Gillett takeover, former employees of Viasystems Tyneside Ltd protested at the Newcastle v Liverpool game. They have yet to be paid redundancy money they were promised. Viasystems Tyneside, controlled by Viasystems Group has a chairman we all know - Tom Hicks.
•Tom Hicks at the time of the takeover at LFC stated - "This is not a takeover like the Glazer deal at Manchester United. There is no debt involved, and we believe that as custodians of this wonderful, storied club we have a duty of care to the tradition and legacies of Liverpool." The takeover is in fact identical to that of the Glazers at Manchester United. Do lies to supporters and those selling the Club have no implications for governance by the Premier League?
•George Gillett at the time of the takeover at LFC stated - "The shovel needs to be in the ground in the next 60 days or so, and we would intend to follow that. I think you'll see the beginnings of a great big swimming pool being dug out here in Stanley Park relatively soon". This was over three years ago now, and we are still now, no nearer to a swimming pool, let alone a new stadium.
•The debt on LFC is now at a staggering height. Before Tom Hicks and George Gillett the Club had a debt of ?44 million. Within months, this had risen to ?350 million and it currently stands at ?237 million. The hollow promise of no debt is only beaten by the lack of regulation or protection given by the Premier League.

The result of Premier League inaction and negligence is that the Royal Bank of Scotland has made an express requirement that the Club reduce the debt by ?100 million forthwith. As a result, LFC finds itself hawking for investment, threatened with action from its bankers if the debt is not reduced. What is the Premier League doing about protecting one of its most prominent members?

It is Liverpool Football Club's current predicament and the Premier League's criminal silence on these issues that has prompted me to contact you. Liverpool Football Club now finds itself being 'touted' around looking for someone to come in and pay down the debt with a ?100 million investment. So far one bid has been submitted from the Rhone group and with the deadline for offers fast approaching. We may find ourselves forced into inappropriate investment, rather than finding suitable investment.

I demand that the Premier League conduct a vigorous 'fit and proper' person’s test of any new investor, considering they are expected to take a controlling stake.

I demand that subsequently you regulate in a much more vigorous way to ensure that any future investor keep any promises to protect all football clubs and the game that you regulate through binding undertakings to be given to the Premier League.

For instance, if it is the Rhone group who are to take a controlling stake in our Club, I would ask that you take account of the following:


•As part of their involvement at the clothing company, Quiksilver, Rhone loaned Quiksilver $150m at an interest rate of 15% (7.5% of this being payable in kind (PiK)). All for a possible return of 20% of the company's shares as well. Do you consider that the terms of any investment has any relevance to any the decision of them being considered 'fit and proper' to run a football club?
•John Muse (of "Hicks Muse Tate Furst" and also blamed for the demise of Corinthians) is believed to be involved. How would such a person pass a 'fit and proper' persons test?
•As a Hedge Fund, Rhone work with other people's money. How does this fit with the role you have to regulate who is "fit and proper" to control a Premier League football club? Will you be asking for the identities of those whose money is being used? After all, anyone can front money, but not make the decisions.

Supporters are rightly concerned. Spirit Of Shankly sent several questions to Christian Purslow, Managing Director at LFC about the proposed investment. Two weeks on, there has been no response, just more worry with newspaper headlines speculating on my club's future. Why are fans having to ask these questions, and fight to protect their club rather than you, the powers that be?

We are not the only club suffering from owners with broken promises, poor finances, or outright liars in charge. What we want to be, is the last.

The Premier League, with its interest in protecting its brand, and being "ownership neutral" is damaging the game. The supporters, like myself, who make this game what it is, are unhappy. Will you listen? Will you answer our questions? I would ask that you do, as if not, our fight and our protests will come to your door.

Ask yourself this - If you don't act now, what brand will you be selling when clubs are bankrupt, fans have walked away and the game lies in tatters?


Yours sincerely


Spirit Of Shankly




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lets hope the people with power take note

[rapscallion]

Maddocks changes his spots

First this
Liverpool fans need to demonstrate the Spirit of Shankly to show potential owners how great the club is

By David Maddock
Published 16:05 18/05/10


"Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies." - W. L. George.

There is a civil war going on at Anfield at the moment, which has caused fan to fight against fan.

Take a look at some of the posts after this column if you don?t believe me, or look at the excellent Liverpool fans? website ?The Liverpool Way?, where you will see raging arguments between people who hold one thing in common: they love the club.

They say that truth is the first casualty of war, and that is certainly the case in the bickering and infighting that is going on at Anfield right now, as the fans try to outdo each other over their stated preferences.


Every single ?truth? is twisted to meet the individual arguments of the opponents, and the tragedy is that the common sense of purpose that should bind the fans together - against the wicked act that is being carried out on their club - is lost.

Last week, in this column, I wrote about the need ? the desperate need ? for Liverpool Football Club to be sold, to stop this famous, mighty, historic club falling into a fatal state of disrepair.

Why Liverpool fans must hold their noses and bite their tongues if they want rid of Hicks and Gillett

With depressing predictability, those words were twisted and misinterpreted to fit the perceptions of different people.

Some even suggested that I was arguing for an end to the protests aimed at highlighting the state of Anfield finances, and maintaining the pressure on the American owners to leave. Utter nonsense.

The last thing Liverpool fans should be doing right now is letting the Americans off the hook. Click on the link above to my column of last week to find out why Liverpool can never move forward under the financial restraints of their ownership.

They need new owners to get out of this dire mess, and the fans should protest as loud as possible to ensure that Tom Hicks and George Gillett know that, to ensure that there is no chance they will ever stay.

But what I did say, was that it would be a disaster ? perhaps terminal ? if they do stay, and so Liverpool fans MUST ensure they do nothing to extend what has already been one of the most disgusting ownerships in football?s murky history.

The Americans have backing from the banks ? potentially ? for another three years, and if they stay for that long, then there will be little left of the club as we know, given the current rate of growth of debts, year on year.

What is needed now is for everyone to come together, the fans and everyone at the club, to ensure that the Americans can?t extend their tenure any longer.

Protests are required to remind Hicks and Gillett that they will never now be welcome at Anfield, and they should get out as soon as possible. But at the same time, steps must be taken to ensure that the infighting which makes Liverpool look such an unattractive buy has to stop.

It is essential Liverpool find new owners, and the money required to even keep Liverpool afloat now, never mind take them forward, is so high that there are only very few people in the world rich enough to do it. The danger is that all the fighting will reduce that small number even further.

The tragedy is that just about every single fan now realises the mess Liverpool are in, having to pay interest on debts incurred when the owners bought the club. In essence, the interest is paying for their ownership.

It is crippling the club, it is stopping the new stadium ? the key to future health and expansion ? being built, and yet the fans, the club officials and the management can?t stop fighting each other long enough to stand all together against it.

There has been a campaign for some time by a group of fans, who call themselves the Spirit of Shankly, who have fought hard against the damage being done to Liverpool Football Club by the American owners, often alone.

The tragedy is that they represent only a tiny minority of all Liverpool fans. And yet when you look at their message on their website, all fans should be subscribing to their particular view on the ownership issue.

All fans should be uniting together with the Spirit of Shankly, with the spirit of Liverpool?s great history, to ensure not just that the Americans go, but also that the new owners realise just what a great, great club Liverpool truly is.

[rapscallion]

then this

Dear Tom and George... do you realise this is the most important summer in Liverpool's history?
By Ian Cruise in Mirror Football Blog

Published 13:10 19/05/10

The Daily Mirror's Merseyside Correspondent, David Maddock, writes an open letter to George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the owners of Liverpool Football Club....

Dear messrs Hicks and Gillett,

I am writing to ask a simple question of you both. Namely, do you realise that this is quite possibly the single most important summer in the history of Liverpool Football Club?

By now, I know you are aware that you have presided over a financial disaster at the English soccer ?franchise? you purchased with much bravado in 2007. No doubt you will blame the global credit crunch and the collapse of the financial markets for your problems, but the simple fact remains that you are unable to put into place the plans you had for the club.

That is why you are selling. The level of interest payments now placed on the club is so crippling that there is no profit left over to fund the development necessary to increase the value of your investment.

You can not build a stadium. You can not even buy marquee players to extend the image of your brand across the developing markets of South East Asia and the Americas. So you are left with a brand that maintains the potential which prompted you to buy it, but without the means to realise that potential.

So you are selling up, you are getting out; you have saddled up the steed and are preparing to hit the trail. Those troublesome fans ? the little people you had banked on exploiting - have made life uncomfortable for you, they have made you unwelcome at your own franchise. They have exposed your plans for what they are: the pursuit of corporate profit.

But that is not the reason you are going. You can live with being hated from 5,000 miles away if it means making more profit. You are going because you feel you can not make any more profit.

Your plan was to tart the property up, making it infinitely more valuable, and then sell it for considerably more than you paid. But the banking collapse put paid to those plans, the banks are continually squeezing your line of credit, and you don?t have the money to make the improvements.

So you will sell it half renovated. You?ll bang on about the huge potential, the opportunity to cash in on a massive global fan base, and you?ll even chuck in some flashy plans for an extension, that will be worth more than it costs to build.

One problem though. This summer. The most important summer in the history of Liverpool Football Club. Because the way you are going, at the end of this summer, your ?property with great development potential? could be worth diddly squat.

Already you are carrying ?350million worth of debt that is growing by the day, and that is even before a disappointing season where failure to qualify for the Champions League will have a massive impact on financial performance. Already, interest payments are wiping out any operating profits the company makes.

But you?ve got even bigger problems ahead, because the whole point of football as a business is that financial performance is intrinsically linked to playing performance. Stop winning on the pitch, and you risk the complete collapse of your brand.

And there is a very real risk of that now. The news that Cesc Fabregas wants out of Arsenal because he feels they can?t compete with the biggest clubs should have the alarm bells screaming for you.

If he feels that about Arsenal ? a club in exponentially better financial health than yours ? then what about Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard? They are your only marquee players, the only faces that sell merchandising in Asia, they are the assets your brand is built on. And they must surely want to leave.

You haven?t invested in the team for two years. You have allowed a situation to grow where the players are no longer all together in the dressing room, and are no longer all behind their manager either.

You have created a situation where your best two players, the key figures in the immediate future of your brand, feel that Liverpool are a hopeless case. No Champions League football, no investment, no direction, just muddling along without any response to the disasters of the last campaign.

And what have you done about it? Nothing. You are sitting and fiddling while Anfield burns, presumably because you think that if you sit tight and don?t get involved, then the banks you have appointed to sell the club will get on and do the job, and deliver you a big fat cheque.

The season ended two weeks ago. It was Liverpool?s worst season in a decade. The problems at the club seem worse now than they have done in 50 years. You have political infighting between board and manager, between manager and players, and even between the fans.

And what do you do? Nothing. No addressing the infighting. No addressing the lack of investment. No addressing the fears of the players. No addressing the unrest in the dressing room. No promises to manager or players. So what do you expect will happen?

Everything will sort itself out, everyone will stay put and get along, and the personnel who weren?t good enough last season will suddenly be transformed ? without any additions ? into champions this time around? Dream on.

What will happen is that Gerrard and Torres will leave. And so will Mascherano and Benayoun. And probably anybody else who is good enough to want better than the nonsense you are offering them.

And then what? Your manager may remain, and you may give him some of the funds that will be raised from the sale of your best players (though no doubt much of it will go towards reducing the crippling debt).

But do you have any faith that those world class players can be replaced adequately? Do you really believe that you can start again and build a completely new side when your best players leave in July?

What will you get then anyway, in July, when everyone else has bought the best players? And what sort of player will you attract to a club that the likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres have deemed is a basket case?

Look at the last few seasons and you?ll see the type of player that is prepared to come to Anfield under your regime. You?ll have a team stuffed full of Degens, Dossenas, Aquilanis, Babels and Voronins.

You were already seventh, almost mid-table anyway. So where will that leave you? Lower mid-table? Relegation scrappers? And all the time the debt will be growing, the loyal fans will be rebelling, and the emerging markets will be switching their fragile allegiances to other more attractive franchises.

Do you think Liverpool will be worth the crazy figures you are asking then? Do you think you?ll make a profit then? Do you think your plans to ride off into the sunset with a big, fat cheque will still be viable?

Of course, not one Liverpool fan gives a stuff about your big fat cheque, and every single one of them would love to see you lose money on your investment to teach you the lesson that football clubs are not simply a brand to be milked for corporate profit.

But every single one of those fans cares passionately about their club, because for them, it is more than just a product. And they care about the state you will leave Liverpool in, because the way you are going there could be nothing left of the club after the most important summer in Anfield history.

If that happens, you won?t just have Liverpool fans to answer to. If you destroy an icon of British sporting history, an icon of British social and cultural history, then you will have most of a nation to answer to.

Bear that in mind as you sit there, fiddling while Anfield burns. But bear in mind, too, the one thing that clearly means so much to you ? money ? could be slipping through your fingers as your inaction runs Liverpool into the ground this summer.

If you don?t want your investment to turn to dust ? and just look at English football history to see what happens to clubs that go into terminal decline ? then you have to act now.

You need first of all to stop Torres and Gerrard following the example of Fabregas. To do that, you need to give them hope for the future, which means investment in the future.

You need a new broom to get rid of the despair of last season and see it replaced with excitement for the coming one. Only money can achieve that, because you need to invest in the best talent available ? to attract world class talent at all levels of your club.

And it needs to happen now. Not in July, but now. You have days, not months, to persuade your best players to stay, and only a massive gesture can do that. Only a massive investment can do that.

It is risky sure, because it means borrowing even more money, given that you won?t invest any of your own cash. But it is worth the risk. Speculate to accumulate and all that.

This is the most important summer in Liverpool?s history. If you get it wrong, as you have done for the past three years, then your investment will be worth nothing. You have to act decisively, and then you have to leave. As quickly as possible. And don?t bother shutting the door on your way out.

Yours truly,

David

[wambo13]

I totally agree with you about these damn yanks,they should never been allowed to buy our club.Investment is what we need and pretty quickly..

[Bulld0g]

If he feels that about Arsenal ? a club in exponentially better financial health than yours ? then what about Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard? They are your only marquee players, the only faces that sell merchandising in Asia, they are the assets your brand is built on. And they must surely want to leave.

You haven?t invested in the team for two years. You have allowed a situation to grow where the players are no longer all together in the dressing room, and are no longer all behind their manager either.

Yep typical Daily Manc. WHY would they SURELY want to leave ?

No investment in Two years ? Keane 19m Aqualani 20m Johnson 18m Skrtel 6m Dossena 7m and Riera 8m, plus the usual batch of players for between one and 3 million, not bad for a club with no money to buy players.

I wonder what player told him that the dressing room is split, and the players are no longer behind the manager ?

TBH this is the kind of shite i'm expecting to hear from the papers in the close season