Saturday 19 April 2008

Hicks and Gillette Set to Sell


George Gillettt (right) and Tom Hicks bought Livepool FC for £435 million in February 2007. (Christopher Furlong/ Getty Images)

It was a relationship that began pleasantly enough, indeed to those of us on the outside it bordered on a cringe-worthy love-in. Yet just over a year down the road it is remarkable to recall the friendly welcome that was afforded to George Gillett and Tom Hicks after they had just purchased Liverpool football club.

The North American businessmen were instantly hailed as the antidote to all of the clubs ills. With billionaire owners backing the team Liverpool fans, who have not witnessed their side win the domestic championship in the Premier League era, convinced themselves that their club could once again compete with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Although both men admitted, albeit rather reluctantly, that they knew very little about the sport of soccer they understood exactly what the fans wanted to hear: they were prepared to invest in the playing staff, they would support manager Rafael Benetiz and they both had the utmost respect for the traditions of Liverpool FC. At the press conference, which was hastily arranged to announce the agreement of the £435 million pound deal, the pair spoke with warmth about the history of the club, the passion of the fans and their determination to see the team reach the peaks it once scaled. During the press conference the men also announced that they were not going to saddle the club with the cost of the buyout, and that they themselves would foot the bill. The charm offensive appeared to be working.

However when the official documentation of the deal emerged, it became clear that they had borrowed money to complete the purchase. In fact the majority of the money, £298 million, was being lent form the Royal Bank of Scotland at extortionate rates of interest.

Controversies

In the summer of 2007 Hicks and Gillett delivered spectacularly on two of their key assurances. Impressive plans were drawn up for the creation of a new 60,000 seated stadium in Stanley Park and almost £50 million pounds was spent in the transfer market on the likes of Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel. Understandably, Liverpool fans felt optimistic about their prospects for the current season.

However, by the Christmas period the team were struggling in the league and were on the verge of elimination in the UEFA Champions League. This mini-slump became an all-out crisis when co-owner Tom Hicks admitted to the Liverpool Echo that he had talked to Jurgen Klinsmann about the “possibility” of him replacing Rafael Benitez. This controversy fused with the unease that the fans felt about the borrowings caused irreconcilable differences to emerge between the supporters and the ownership team.



An artists impression of the proposed 60,000 seated stadium in Stanley Park.


The Future?

It would seem that the only plausible solution to the situation is for Hicks and Gillett to both sell there share in the team to an outside buyer. The men, whose own relationship has suffered as a consequence of the ownership saga, stand to make a considerably healthy profit on their initial investment.

Liverpool Chief Executive Rick Parry recently remarked on the ownership issue: “There is no question that to succeed you need unity at the top, unity at the club, and everyone pulling in the same direction. Without that, it is extremely difficult to progress and it is clear from George has said the unity is not there.”

Currently there appear to be only two groups prepared to rescue the business partners. The first is Dubai International Capital (DIC) who have been courting the club since before the Hicks-Gillett takeover. The group is the “investment arm” of the Dubai government and have a history of success in the field of sports ownership. Yet there remain fears amongst fans that DIC do not have a true appreciation of what the club represents to the community and that they view it purely as an investment opportunity.

The alternative, which is perhaps even more intriguing, is Share Liverpool. This is a group of committed supporters who want to buy the club for £500 million, through 100,000 fans each paying £5,000 for a share. If successful, the team would become a community-owned asset, operated by elected fans whose sole motivation is to achieve on-field success rather than profit.

Whatever transpires Liverpool fans everywhere will be hoping for a happy ending to this sad story which has tarnished the image of their club.

This map illustrates Liverpool's current ground (Anfield) in relation to the site of their proposed new stadium in Stanley Park.


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Share Liverpool

Dr Rogan Taylor is not your typical Premier League Chairman. In fact at this moment in time he is not a Premier League Chairman, but the lecturer at the University of Liverpool and Kop season holder of more than forty years could soon be operating Britain’s most successful club.

Taylor is the founder and spokesman of the newly formed Liverpool Football Club supporters group Share Liverpool. This group comprises of thousands of loyal Liverpool supporters, whose ambition is to reclaim the club from its current owners and end an 18-year cycle of relative mediocrity. The idea, which has been hastily created in response to the current boardroom battles, is for 100,000 Liverpool supporters to each pay £5,000 each for a single share in the club. “Its certainly ambitious, but it is very possible,” says Taylor.

The supporters group has only existed for a matter of months, but they hope and believe they can raise £500 million to first buy the club from its American owners and then fund the construction of a new 60,000 seated stadium in Stanley Park. "Thousands of Liverpool fans have already demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs… In such a case, why not simply buy the club yourselves?" Rogan Taylor asks.

The ownership model proposed by Share Liverpool mirrors that of FC Barcelona. The team from the Catalan capital is run via a “member-share” scheme whereby the clubs 150,000 members each vote every fourth year to decide which member should be the President. The position of President carries the same responsibilities of your ordinary Premier League Chairman, only the President is answerable to his members. Dr Taylor explains: "In Germany and Spain, most top-level football clubs are simply not for sale. They are owned by many thousands of 'member fans'.”

Initial Interest

Supporters who are interested in the scheme are being encouraged to visit the Share Liverpool website at http://www.shareliverpool.co.uk/. When the website was first launched in January, Taylor admits to being unsure as to how popular he thought it would be. However within an hour of the websites launch it crashed because there were so many thousands of people trying to access the site.

Thus far the group claim to have raised almost £80 million, but they are still huge distance away from their ultimate ambition of £500 million. “We have a solid core of 9,500 people pledging £5,000 each – and another 9,000 who are interested but need more information,” says Taylor. Consequently the site has been re-launched in Chinese to attract interest from the clubs huge, and equally loyal support in the Far-East.

Significant Supporters

Broadly speaking the idea of a group of football supporters organizing themselves to purchase one of sports most valuable global brands would seem to be wholly unrealistic, yet it is not so easy to dismiss the credibility of Share Liverpool.

Rogan Taylor is a specialist on the issue of football economics, while advice has been offered by fan-trust body Supporters Direct, and lawyer Kevin Jaquiss - an expert in launching co-operatives. “We have brought together the different skill-sets in areas such finance, law and marketing that are needed if we are to succeed in this venture,” says Taylor.

Also support has been offered by some of Liverpool’s great former players such as John Aldridge, Jan Molby and European Cup winning Captain Phil Thompson. Thompson, who was also the Assistant Manager during Gerard Houllier’s reign, is actively encouraging supporters to get involved with the project: “Liverpool Football Club has always needed its fans; now more than ever. Not if but when our current owners decide to sell, we as fans need to be in a position to help.”

Former centre-forward Aldridge believes that Share Liverpool could spark a mini revolution in British football: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the fans who dearly love the Club to own it themselves - and also to set the standard for other fans to follow. It would terrific if it led to other fans owning their own clubs too.”



Victory or Defeat?

Despite an impressive amount of support amongst your casual match-going fan, it remains to be seen whether Share Liverpool will ever succeed in buying out the clubs current owners. However, one can not help but admire the passion and commitment these people share for their club.

Share Liverpool, and other such groups, serves to remind the figures at the top of football that the supporters are the lifeblood of the game. Fan involvement can only be a positive move for the sport, and a football club, that has diluted its traditions in search of commercial gain.

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Sunday 6 April 2008

Too Nice?


Is it possble to have too much of a good thing?

Well according to blogger Patricia Davis it is. When watching the recent game between Lindsay Davenport and Ana Ivanovic on television Davis observed that there was something tangible lacking in the Serbs game. It is what seperates the good players from the genuingly great champions: steel.

Ivanovic's game is notable for its style and elegence, however there remains a suspision that she is mentally weak. She is in effect too nice.

In her blog Patricia Davis draws a rather obvious parralel between Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova:

"To borrow from movie heroines, I think Ana is too much into being a Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart. I for one would rather see her morph into an Anton Chigurrh type, the blood-curdling hit man Javier Bardem played in No Country For Old Men."

To all tennis followers it is blindindly obvious that Ivanovic possesses the skill to become a grand-slam champion, but her own mentallity may prevent her from fulfilling the potential.

It's time for the lamb to become the wolf.

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Roddick Finally Beats Federer

2003. That's the last time Andy Roddick managed to beat his great rival Roger Federer before his relatively comprehensive triumph in the Sony Ericson Open. And despite an 11 game losing run against the world no. 1 there were no wild celebrations, but simply a polite handshake at the net. It was almost as if Roddick was overcome with suprise.

“I came in knowing that nobody has beaten me 12 times in a row,” Roddick told the delighted capacity crowd afterward. “So I had that on my side.” “I figure I was due,” Roddick said. “He hadn’t missed a ball in a crucial moment for about six years against me. I figured the law of statistics had to come my way eventually.”

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