John W Henry Questions Uefa Financial Fair Play Rules

Liverpool FC owner John W Henry has questioned whether UEFA’s financial fair-play rules will prove sufficiently robust - and was surprised to see Chelsea spending heavily on transfers as the London club revealed heavy losses.

Under UEFA’s new rules, clubs will face possible bans from European competition from the 2014/15 season if they spend more than they earn in the three years before.

Henry expressed surprise that Chelsea were willing to go as high as £50million to sign Fernando Torres from Liverpool, on the same transfer deadline day that the club also spent around £25million on David Luiz and announced total losses of £70.9million for the year ending 30 June 2010.

Henry said: "I was surprised Monday morning to receive an offer in that amount at the same time they were announcing such large losses.

"The big question is just how effective the financial fair-play rules are going to be. Perhaps some clubs support the concept in order to limit the spending of other clubs, while implementing activities specifically designed to evade the rules they publicly support.

"We can only hope that UEFA has the ability and determination to enforce what they have proposed."

For Liverpool’s part, Henry pledged to live well within the rules.

"We’ve always spent money we’ve generated rather than deficit-spending and that will be the case in Liverpool," he said, talking about the way in which his Fenway Sports Group operate the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

"It’s up to us to generate enough revenue to be successful over the long term. We have not and will not deviate from that."

Henry claimed Liverpool did not worry over what they had to pay to Newcastle for striker Andy Carroll, as long as they emerged with £15million in cash left over after the sale of Torres to Chelsea.

Liverpool have come in for criticism after lavishing £35million on Newcastle to bring Carroll to Anfield, but Henry said the size of the fee was not a concern as it was always factored in to negotiations with Chelsea.

"The fee for Torres was dependent on what Newcastle asked for Carroll," Henry said.

"The negotiation for us was simply the difference in prices paid by Chelsea and to Newcastle. Those prices could have been £35million (from Chelsea for Torres) and £20million (to Newcastle for Carroll), 40 and 25 or 50 and 35. It was ultimately up to Newcastle how much this was all going to cost. They (Newcastle) made a hell of a deal. We felt the same way."

With Ryan Babel moving to Hoffenheim for £6million, the difference on the Carroll deal allowed Liverpool to fund the £22.8million arrival of Luis Suarez from Ajax.

Henry also endorsed Liverpool caretaker manager Kenny Dalglish, without confirming he would be offered the job on a permanent basis.

"We didn’t know Kenny well prior to him coming aboard as manager," Henry said. "But he has exceeded our expectations on all fronts. It would be inappropriate to comment publicly on what happens beyond the end of this season."