ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:THE OWNER of the Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball team, John W Henry, has posted an outline offer to buy Liverpool Football Club, according to sources close to the discussions. Liverpool's chairman, Martin Broughton, presented Henry's bid, along with one from Asian business interests, understood to be Chinese, at a board meeting yesterday.
Both bids were described as “credible” by reliable sources yesterday and Broughton, Liverpool’s managing director Christian Purslow, and Ian Ayre, the club’s commercial director, were understood to favour entering serious discussions.
However, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the American owners of Liverpool, which owes €272 million to Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, were said to have rejected the offers in principle because they do not provide enough money for their shares.
One informed source described Henry as “extremely interested” in buying Liverpool, saying he has the means and expertise required, as evidenced by the Red Sox’s iconic stadium, Fenway Park.
Liverpool supporters will be naturally suspicious of any bid coming from the US after the bitter experience with Hicks and Gillett and will want assurances that the finance is real, not borrowed. Hicks and Gillett engineered a “leveraged buy-out” of Liverpool in February 2007, with €212 million entirely borrowed from RBS, then made the capital and interest the club’s responsibility to repay.
The outlines of the bids are understood to be broadly the ones which have been considered as the only credible solution for the club – repaying the banks but giving little profit to Hicks and Gillett. The banks, both of which collapsed in the economic crisis, want their loans back on October 15th but there is no apparent prospect of either of the owners being able to repay them.
Despite that, Hicks and Gillett are known to have held out for a handsome profit on their shares. Neither could be reached for comment last night.
Meanwhile, Nigel De Jong will continue to escape retrospective action for his leg-breaking tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa despite Newcastle United writing to the Football Association yesterday demanding the Manchester City midfielder be banned.
While the City manager, Roberto Mancini, attempted to defend his player, Newcastle requested that the FA make a precedent of the De Jong case by bypassing the rules and issuing, at the very least, an automatic three-match suspension. A club statement said: “Newcastle United have today written a strongly-worded letter to the Football Association. The club has asked the FA for the appropriate action to be taken against De Jong for the tackle, which, in the club’s opinion, was unnecessary and used excessive force.”
The FA, however, is tied by Fifa’s rules and, while there is sympathy for Newcastle for losing the Frenchman to a double fracture, there is nothing they can do now the referee, Martin Atkinson, has confirmed he saw the tackle and did not believe it was worthy even of a yellow card.
Chelsea will have to make do without Alex for three weeks after the in-form central defender received unfavourable news from the scan on the thigh muscle he hurt in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Arsenal.
Guardian Service
