Hicks and Gillet watch out. There is a new takeover bid on the horizon - no Dubai, Russian or Thai sugar daddies in the picture, it is coming from the fans themselves. Liverpool supporters cannot bear to see their club in turmoil any more. The last few months of financial and managerial uncertainty at Anfield has given their club a bad name and a plan to buy out the club was hatched.
The idea goes like this. A group by the name of Share Liverpool FC will create a “member-share” scheme whereby 100,000 people invest £5,000. The resulting £500m raised will then go towards ousting co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and build a new stadium.
“It is time to answer the concerns that football fans have about the patterns of ownership developing at our major football clubs,” said Rogan Taylor, a Kop season ticket holder and spokesman for Share Liverpool. “Thousands of Liverpool fans have already demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.
“Large amounts of debt is often laden on to newly-bought clubs and the fans know that in the end, it will be them 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?”
Share Liverpool hope to follow the lead of Barcelona, which is owned by 150,000 of its fans. “What many don’t realise is that there are other ways of financing and taking ownership of big clubs,” said Taylor. ”
In Germany and Spain, most top-level football clubs are simply not for sale. They are owned by many thousands of ‘member fans’. The Champions League has been won on six occasions in the last 15 years by clubs owned and run in such a way.”
There is a good chance this buyout scheme will work in the England context since top clubs like Barcelona have implemented such a system and are alive and kicking. But the main thing now is whether Hicks and Gillet want to sell since they “love Liverpool to death.”
Even if they succeed in buying out the Americans’ stakes (it will not be cheap), there is not much funds left to build a new stadium. What do you guys think?
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