Why No one wants to buy Liverpool FC

As a key date for the potential sale or take over by The Royal Bank of Scotland approaches, you have to wonder why no real contenders are stepping up to buy the legendary Liverpool FC.

The answers lay in the the position of RBS who is the major creditor against LFC and The Kop Holding company, which is the company which co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks set up back in 2005. The situation is complicated but the easiest way to break it down is like this:

Tom Hicks wants to sell the club as it has now become a dead weight around his finances. He would like to sell at either a profit which at last estimate would be around $600 million pounds or at the break even point which would be around $400 million. This would allow Hicks to walk away with some of his money, buy out Gillett who pulled out of the team last year, and still keep other aspects of his business sound.

The problem for Hicks and for the club is that if a buyer cannot be found before the October 15th deadline proposed by RBS, then the bank may seize the club in order to get back some of the money it lent to Hicks and Gillet to buy the club back in 2005. RBS has made it clear that it is not in the business of owning and running football clubs, and the last thing RBS wants is to hold onto Liverpool.

If the bank takes control of the club it will try to sell it almost immediately. This is where finding a buyer before October 15th gets tricky.

The bank can only sell the club for the amount it loaned Kop Holdings, approximately $240 million pounds. Which means any potential buyer logically would wait until after the club is taken over to put in an offer. For fans of the club they would have to endure the embarrassment of being taken over buy a bank, oddly enough a bank that needed to be bought out by the government because of bad business dealings like this. It is a further sign of the slow decline of a once dominant football club.

May no mistake about it the American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are to blame for most of this, they bought a team with credit, hedged on the value of the market. When the economy faltered in mid 2008 the team was officially in trouble. Their stand off-ish nature with the supporters, the at times unbelievably hostile nature between the Hicks and Gillett and the long time stand off between the ownership and former manager Rafa Benitez had left this club unattractive to buy for some. However make no mistake someone or some group will buy this club.

The question for supporters is will it be before or after the RBS reign?

Cheers,
Mike

Another contender for goal of the year!

This was from Sunday's match between Manchester United v Liverpool, the score ended up being 3-2 in favor of Man U, but the story of the game aside from the face John O'Shea probably should have been sent off was Dimitar Berbatov. He scored a hat trick of goals and the second one was sheer genius, an excellent over head kick. The video below is a full match highlight, but really enjoy Berba's second goal.



As always I don't know how long the video will stay up for enjoy it while you can!

Cheers,
Mike

More drama on Merseyside

Another chapter in the ownership battle for Liverpool FC was written today, as they announced up to 6 bids to buy the club from the American duo of Tom Hicks and George Gillette have been recieved. The only confirmed bidder for the club is Kenny Huang a multi billionaire businessman based out of Shanghai, the rest are thought to be multi national consortiums. It is little secret that the current ownership regime at Anfield have had a very rocky relationship with the supporters and former manager Rafa Benitez. Things started well in the first year with a Champions league title, but as more debt was taken out on the club things began to sour.

The recession hit Hicks and Gillette hard both at the club and with their other businesses in North America. Supporters at the club turned against the ownership and held mass rallies against the owners, these flames were especially fanned by Benitez who pitted himself as the supporters manager fighting against inept owners. It is clear now that the supporters will be getting their way with the Americans leaving and a English manager Roy Hodgson in charge.

However the supporters should be careful before they begin the rejoice at the Kop, new owners always come to a club with their own agenda and Kenny Huang would be no different. Over the past few summers Liverpool have been aggressively pushing the Merseyside brand in Asia and Huang has made it clear he would try to knock Manchester United off as the biggest football brand in the far east. So the question for Liverpool supporters would be, are you willing to lose some of the English authenticity of the club in order to be debt free? The reason this would be a major question for the club is that this has been the long time argument for Liverpool, they have stayed to a certain extent "English". This of course was in the context of the big four as during Benitez's turn the players took on more of a Spanish feel.

Liverpool will not be alone in this ever growing popularity in foreign interests buying English clubs, Arsenal quietly have had a tug of war in regards to ownership shares in the club; and although the latest attempts to buy Manchester United have been from the so called "Red Knights" who are led by Englishmen, you would have to think that that only foreign money could buy out the over 700 million pounds debt.

So we'll wait and see what the decision is from RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) as they are the main debtors and will facilitate the sale, as it is understood this will be a quick decision and may be done by next week...Assuming the new owners pass the fit and proper persons test.

Cheers,
Mike