da supremo：
da wazamba： It is a well published fact that Liverpool’s debt has reached £350m. Recording a loss of over £50m during the last financial year typifies the fans’ increasing worry and has led to a Liverpool Supporters’ Group – Spirit of Shankly – to discuss their concerns with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore today.
The topic of discussion is not simply the debt that has been incurred but more the manner in which the American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have been allowed to use the club as an asset to further plough into debt:
“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 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.”
A very real danger for Liverpool is the impending loss of revenue without Champions League football and a seventh place league finish for the season. With the current owners in place the club is only falling deeper into the chasm of debt without even a remote prospect of being able to meet the repayments of loans. Liverpool fans certainly have a case because their debt isn’t akin to the likes of various clubs who overspend on transfers in a bid to buy success. My very basic understanding of the situation – from talking to fans and reading what has been written online – is that Liverpool’s debt is a result of a leveraged buyout that has loaded the actual cost of buying the club, onto the club itself. If this is in fact the case then regulation surely needs addressing. It would be in the Premier League’s best interest to ensure this situation does not repeat itself because not only is the club suffering but the credibility of the League suffers too. The debt at Liverpool and Manchester United becomes emblematic of ‘English’ debt when the obtuse and prejudiced judgments of Platini and Blatter are cast.
A question from rival fans, and perhaps even Scudamore, is should the league be responsible for vetting potential buyers or the club in question? Furthermore, Liverpool and Manchester United fans will definitely want to know, what can even be done to confront the American owners?
“It isn’t right or proper that a club should pay for its 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…making a profit. Those in charge need to act, and they need to act now.”
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