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Liverpool FC fans group launches bid for club
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LIVERPOOL FC fans today launched a sensational bid to buy their own club. Reports Luke Traynor Liverpool Echo
The newly-formed Share Liverpool FC announced a radical move to purchase the Anfield enterprise from its US owners.
The group hopes to find 100,000 supporters to invest £5,000 each in the club and prise away it from Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
They aim to raise £500m to buy the Reds from the billionaire tycoons and finance a new stadium.
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The member-share scheme is based on a continental-style model, in which fans own a huge stake in the club.
Spanish giants Barcelona FC operate under a similar system.
The announcement came as Reds fans sobered up to the reality of having to pay £30m-a-year interest on new loans taken out by Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett.
Many supporters are worried about the club’s financial future after the pair completed their controversial £350m re-financing deal.
Share Liverpool FC comprises legal experts and people in senior public positions.
If it succeeds, it is understood that fans who bought a share in Liverpool would be entitled to a vote on who ran the club.
The person ultimately elected would be responsible for all major decisions at Anfield.
The exact workings of the scheme were due to be unveiled at Liverpool university later today.
A website is also expected to be launched by the group, and Share Liverpool FC has been in contact with major LFC fanzines to inform them of the move.
They have acknowledged there is no precedent for the scheme in this country, but said it has worked successfully abroad.
The plan is headed by Dr Rogan Taylor, director of the Football Industry Group at Liverpool university.
He said: “The time is right to offer a different solution to the rising concerns that football fans have about the patterns of ownership developing at our major football clubs.
“Thousands of Liverpool fans have already demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.
“Large amounts of debt often devolves on to newly purchased clubs, but the fans know that in the end, it will be they themselves who will have to pay it off through increased ticket prices and other schemes. In such a case, why not simply buy the club yourselves?”
The group argue that many top-flight sides in Germany and Spain are owned by thousands of “member fans”.
Also involved in the project is Phil French, formerly of the Premier League and now chief executive of Supporters Direct.
He is joined by Kevin Jaquiss, from law firm Cobbetts, who has headed some of the country’s most successful sport legal cases.
Some Reds fans are already sceptical that even huge numbers of supporters would not carry the necessary financial clout to achieve such a move.
But the idea has received wide backing from internet forums, where anti Hicks/Gillett sentiments are still running high.
Richie Pedder, chairman of the Liverpool FC supporters’ club, said: “It would be worth looking into.”
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