Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Potential Liverpool Buyers Mysteriously Lose Interest

Reports in the English media suggest that Liverpool's American owners recently came close to selling the club, until the potential buyers walked away with no explanation.

The ongoing ownership saga at Liverpool has had a new twist added to it with reports that suggest a Middle-Eastern investment group almost bought the club two weeks ago and then dropped its interest in strange circumstances.

Tom Hicks and George Gillet Jnr., the Anfield club's American owners, still deny that the club is up for sale. However, The Times reports that an Arab group, unrelated to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, had made a firm offer for the club but then walked away with a deal imminent.

Interest had apparently been shown by a consortium from Kuwait, though it is not known whether this is the same group that walked away from the recent deal. Sheikh Mohammed, now operating separately from Dubai International Capital group rather than through them, also still has a £500 million offer on the table.

The American tycoons are expected to issue another public denial today that they want to sell the club, but it is an open secret in football financial circles that they are desperate to find a buyer after a series of high-profile and embarrassing incidents, such as the failure to provide a new stadium for the club in Stanley Park.

That particular project was quashed due to an inability by the Americans to raise funds.

With the club heavily in debt and looking unlikely to be able to restructure its £350 million debt to the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia banks due to the Credit Crunch, Hicks and Gillett would like to sell sooner rather than later.

However, with the world in the grip of an economic recession, that process may not be as straightforward as they would like.

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