Liverpool FC

Liverpool FC is now officially up for sale. Available for a mere £500 million.

I'll check my penny jar.

In reality Liverpool has been up for sale all along, as Hicks and Gillette were always willing sellers to anyone who put enough money down. I'm not sure that making it official makes any real difference.

The reality is that they are not sure that they will get the refinancing rate they have to by June hence the sudden apparent rush of action. They have not got the money to rebuild the squad and the inevitable lack of champions league revenue next year makes it a disasterous financial year.

Surely, if Hicks and Gillette have trouble meeting the debt to RBS and default, then RBS, owned by us the taxpayers, will become the new owners. I'm sure all the Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton fans etc, will be glad to know that their taxes will be bailing them out.

Waldorf and Statler have only ever been in it to make money piggy backed off a loan from RBS.......They saw streams of cash from tv rights and a new stadium. Of course, what they DIDN'T account for was the worst recession in living memory and a wasteful manager, which shot all their plans to hell.

Add to that the fact that it turned out that they couldn't stand each other, whenever one wanted to do anything the other one made it his life's work to veto it!! It's left them with massive debts that they can't afford to pay, and a manager that they can't afford to get rid of....The sooner they're both gone (and the manager) and someone else starts the rebuild, the better, IMO.

(16-04-2010 11:55 )rickhardo Wrote:  I'll check my penny jar.

You won't have enough in there to buy Liverpool, but you might have enough to buy Portsmouth.

£1 and that's my final offer!

I'm a scouser and regard the state of Liverpool FC as a disgrace and symptomatic of all that is wrong with Premiership football. A leveraged buy out by two sports franchise owning entrepreneurs, promises to invest in a new stadium on a public park in one of the most deprived areas in the country and all for nought except the pursuit of a rentier windfall profit. Doesn't it make you feel proud to be a football fan? Er, no!

Football clubs are businesses that are also social enterprises in terms of fan involvement and commitment. There has got be a way that these two interests can be satisfied - the gradual socal ownership of sports clubs has got be a target for the next decade.

I'm an Evertonian by birth but don't think for a minute that I'm a red-hater because I'm not - I just hate the operation of international sports capitalism.

I'm in full agreement with colino and Doctoratthedock, here. Football is a bubble economy and the thing about bubble economies, the really important thing, is that sooner or later, they burst. I hope Liverpool are able to find a sensible new owner soon, because when the bubble bursts only clubs with sugar daddies willing to underwrite the horrendous losses are going to be able to ride out the storm. Look at Leeds Utd nearly going to the wall, Portsmouth still aren't out of the woods and more Football League clubs than I care to think about are in similar situations.

Fans of EPL clubs shouldn't be hoping for sugar daddies with big dreams and hopes of reflected glory, but sensible owners who are more concerned with making sure a club operates within its projected turnover and debts don't spiral out of control. Short term success may be harder to come by, but long term those clubs who do will be beter positioned than those who are leveraged to the hilt (which includes my own club!) to survive the inevitable crash. When a football club becomes a toy for someone, there's always the worry about what happens to the toy when the owner gets bored of it.