Thursday, October 01, 2009

Saudi Prince’s Company Blames Hicks For Stalling Deal

Speculation continues about the possibility of Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud, a member of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, buying into Liverpool, after the English Premier League club admitted that it had appointed advisors to look at new investment opportunities.

Fahd bin Abdullah's F6 company has signed an agreement with Liverpool and co-owner George Gillett's Nascar franchise, Richard Petty MOtorsports, that will see two Liverpool-backed youth academies and a number of motor racing tracks built in Saudi Arabia. The prince also spoke publically about his desire to become a part-owner of the club, but a senior figure at F6 has now suggested that moves to that end have been frustrated by Gillett's relationship with Hicks.

"Right now George has a lot of ongoing issues with his existing partner, and he is working through those with the banks and Premier League," said F6 director Barry Didato last night. "Prince Faisal has said we're keeping a very open-door policy to it, but that the existing partnership should not look to him being a solution to Liverpool's balance sheet and there are some balance sheet issues yet to be resolved."

The news comes just one day after newspaper reports linked an Indian billionaire with a takeover bid for the club.

A spokesperson for Liverpool said simply: "The owners have jointly retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Rothschild to evaluate the possibility of new investors injecting equity into LFC. However, the process is at an early stage, there is no agreement with any party and reports to the contrary are wholly inaccurate."

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