Soccer:Liverpool's new owners will remove all "acquisition debt" from Liverpool if their takeover is successful, a statement from the American company New England Sports Ventures promised today.
The owners of the Boston Red Sox confirmed their bid, understood to be for €340 million, had been accepted by Liverpool’s board — though current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have launched a legal challenge opposing that acceptance.
A statement from New England Sports Ventures (NESV) read: “NESV wants to create a long-term financially solid foundation for Liverpool and is dedicated to ensuring that the club has the resources to build for the future, including the removal of all acquisition debt.
“Our objective is to stabilise the club and ultimately return Liverpool to its rightful place in English and European football, successfully competing for and winning trophies.”
Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton hailed a “great day” for the club after the deal was concluded. The finalities will depend on a legal challenge by owners Hicks and
Gillett, who want a higher price, but one hurdle has already been overcome with the Premier League prepared to give their go-ahead to the deal as early as Friday.
“This is a great day for Liverpool Football Club and the supporters,” said Broughton, who feels an exhaustive process has led them to find the right new owners. “I can understand why there might be an instant reaction about them being American. But being American is not a problem, leveraged ownership of a football club is the problem.
“I just hope we can deliver what we have set out to do. We have found the right owners. There will be money to invest in the squad. It is all about winning, that is their philosophy. You have to look at what they have done. This is all going to be about not ‘What we promise to do’ but to see what ‘We do actually do’ on their part.
“If you look at the Boston Red Sox, they have taken a major traditional team, previously successful but not at their peak, and resuscitated it to be a winner. They understand winning on the field helps winning off the field and makes the investment an attractive investment and they have a track record to prove it.
“They have been the most successful team since acquiring the Red Sox in 2001 — there are parallels with Liverpool.”
Broughton also feels NESV will provide much-needed cash for transfer funds and would seriously look at building a new stadium or possibly redeveloping Anfield.
“They don’t want any hostages to fortune, very sensibly, so they’re not going to make any comments about how much (money) or anything like that,” he said. “Let’s look at what they have done at Boston, what they said in Boston, what they have done in terms of investing in players and I think you get a high degree of confidence of their willingness to do that.
“If you look at the Boston Red Sox, when they arrived everyone said ‘We have to build a new stadium, this one is clapped out’. They looked at it, its tradition, and decided to invest heavily to reinvent Fenway Park, rather than move to a new stadium.
“There is definitely a commitment to invest in a stadium and we will finish up with a 60,000+ seater stadium. Where they haven’t finalised their view is whether that should be the new stadium or whether there are still opportunities to build at Anfield itself.”
Broughton did his best to reassure fans who are wary that more American owners, led by multi-millionaire John W Henry, could lead Liverpool down the same indebted path Hicks and Gillett did.
“This is a very profitable organisation, it has a substantial number of wealthy investors — about 17 I think — and it has very little debt in the organisation,” he added. “I don’t know to what extent they are taking debt into the holding company or to what extent they are calling on the owners — frankly that is their affair — but it is not debt which will be close to Liverpool.
“I understand the concerns but they are not [replacing one massive debt] with another one.”
The deal agreed with NESV will see Liverpool freed of €230 million of debt with €40 million of “external debt” — a typical working overdraft facility — remaining.
It would also mean Hicks and Gillett would lose €155 million as the NESV acquisition would remove the burden of the acquisition debt, effectively paying off most of what was owed to Royal Bank of Scotland, but the money the Americans themselves put in a holding company would not be covered.
That is the main reason the current owners have objected to the sale, as they want a much higher purchase price to allow them to make a profit. Broughton felt by contesting the decision- they were outvoted three to two on the board after a structure was put in place in April to prevent them vetoing any sale — the Americans had lost their final opportunity to leave Anfield with some dignity.
“It is a great pity they are not going to take the opportunity to be the good guys and pass over Liverpool to the right owners,” he added. “That is what they promised to do, what they said all along they wanted to do, and at the last minute when it does not pay them what they see as enough they have chosen to fight it.
“I can understand their disappointment that they are not going to get their money back, but this has been a full and exhaustive process. One last throw of the dice just to go down in leaving an ever-more negative legacy, I am disappointed because they won’t achieve it and they will lose the same amount of money and leave a very bad taste.”
Liverpool supporters are overjoyed at the prospect of Hicks and Gillett being forced out of Anfield but they will not welcome their replacements with open arms.
If New England Sports Ventures complete their proposed buyout of the Premier League club, it is unlikely that United States flags will suddenly become fashionable on the Kop.
"New owners are not walking into a club of supporters with open arms," a statement from supporters group Spirit of Shankly said on Wednesday. "There will be one gently outstretched hand of welcome while the other hand contains a list of questions that will need honest and open answers before any welcome becomes more warm."