Friday, May 14, 2010

Spirit of Shankly Set For Showdown Talks With Premier League

A leading Liverpool fans’ group is to demand answers when holding talks with the Premier League tomorrow.

The Spirit of Shankly have managed to secure a meeting with League officials in hope of finding resolutions to the ongoing off-field problems that are blighting the Reds..

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore is the highest profile member of the League delegation set for the face-to-face talks with SOS on Friday.

The supporters’ union says thousands of concerned fans have already e-mailed and written to the League asking what action they are going to take to help a club which has developed severe financial problems.

SOS have expressed their deep concern at how the club has been allowed to “deteriorate” and say Scudamore and the League’s hierarchy must not allow such issues, which have plagued the Tom Hicks and George Gillett ownership reign, to happen again.

James McKenna, spokesperson for SOS said: “The Premier League has a duty to run the game properly, to regulate it and make sure it is protected. However, they don’t seem to take this duty seriously, allowing the debts at Liverpool to pile up, with owners who are far from fit and proper.

“We would like to the Premier League to better protect clubs and put in place regulation that stops what has happened with Hicks and Gillett from happening all over again. It isn’t right or proper that a club should pay for it’s owners to actually own them, and it isn’t proper for the future and the finances of a club to be put in jeopardy for the sake of business and making a profit.

“Those in charge need to act, and they need to act now, before its all too late.”

SOS, established in backlash to the American owners, will have the chance to hammer home their fears for the future having already sent the Premier League a letter.

The furious Anfield supporters’ group believes lack of regulations on the behalf of League chiefs is in part to blame for the Reds’ spiral into danger.

An exert from the letter to the Premier League reads: “It is Liverpool FC’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.”

SOS also claim in their letter to have sent questions to Reds managing director Christian Purslow - but say they have yet to receive answers.

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