Show us the money first!
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Show us the money: Anfield chiefs want proof that Chinese tycoon can pay for club
Crisis club Liverpool told prospective buyers on Thursday night to put their money on the table as the battle for control of Anfield intensified.
After a remarkable week that has seen suitors circling the debt-laden club, Liverpool made it clear it was time for the posturing to end and for formal bids to be lodged.
Far East businessman Kenny Huang remains the front-runner to take control, but suggestions that his bid was funded by the Chinese Government were denied on Thursday, just as the club prepared for the game which saw them comfortably cruise into the next round of the Europa League.
Boardroom battle: Questions remain over Yahya Kirdi (left) ability to see through a purchase, while Kenny Huang (right) is the front-runner in the fight for Liverpool
Huang, head of sports marketing company QSL Limited, has made contact with Liverpool’s negotiating team, as well as the club’s bankers RBS, but reports he was a front man for China’s overseas investment arm, China Investment Corporation (CIC), met with a mystified response in his homeland.
Huang, who is determined to drive through a deal that would see him pay off the club’s substantial debt, has boasted that his consortium will allow manager Roy Hodgson time to bed in and provide a substantial war chest to attract top players to Anfield.
Huang’s emergence on the scene has also been credited with a significant role in persuading both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres to stay.
Doubts over his funding have cast a cloud over those promises, but did nothing to quell that debate over whether an arm of the Chinese Government should be allowed to invest in Liverpool.
Unpopular: The American ownership of Gillett (left) and Hicks has long lost the support of the Anfield faithful
Of the other names claiming to be close to a deal to wrestle the club from the grip of American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, Sportsmail understands the Kuwaiti Al Kharafi family and American investment company The Rhone Group have both been ruled out, after struggling to raise the necessary funds.
Canada-based Syrian tycoon Yahya Kirdi continues to push his claims, though there is still a degree of scepticism over the way he has evidently negotiated directly with Hicks and Gillett, rather than the pair’s representatives.
In a significant development, it was confirmed that the Americans no longer have the final say over which bid should be selected to launch a new Anfield era.
When RBS reluctantly sanctioned a refinancing deal with Liverpool’s deeply unpopular owners in March, it was on two conditions. They had to put their joint 100 per cent holding on the market and agree that any decision on new owners would be taken by the board overall, rather than themselves.
At least on pitch matters are sorted: David Ngog and Steven Gerrard got the goals on a comfortable night for Liverpool against Macedonian minnows
Commercial director Ian Ayre, chief executive Christian Purslow and chairman Martin Broughton make up a five-man board with Hicks and Gillett and will have an equal share of power when it comes to determining who should take over.
As reported in Sportsmail earlier this week, Huang is convinced he would sail through the Premier League’s new directors and owners test, given his substantial financial backing, business record as the first graduate from mainland China to work on the New York Stock Exchange and sporting background as a prominent figure in Chinese basketball and baseball circles.
Once a formal offer has been made, the bidder would have to meet Premier League bosses and convince them that they have the funds in place to complete a purchase and have a sustainable business plan.
However, with human rights groups sure to be uneasy about China effectively owning the club, it would fall to the British Government to adjudicate as such a decision would fall outside the Premier League’s remit.
History: Liverpool finished a lowly seventh in the Premier League last season and are laden with debt
News that the race to unseat Hicks and Gillett was hotting up came at the end of a day shrouded in uncertainty over the Chinese businessman.
The Financial Times website quoted a spokesman for CIC as saying they had never heard of Huang, adding that there was ‘no way’ the fund would get involved in such a high-profile, symbolic and potentially risky deal. The website also cast doubt on the global reach of Huang’s company.
Staying: Fernando Torres has committed his future to the club despite the continued uncertainty
There were mixed feelings among fans who flocked to Anfield last night for the match against Rabotnicki, with some supporters expressing profound reservations that their club could be taken over by an arm of a government with a questionable human rights record.
Steve Naylor, from the Wirral, said: ‘I think it’s wrong that anyone from China can come in and buy this great club of ours. This club belongs to the people of Liverpool, not someone coming in with money from China.
'It saddens me greatly to see what is going on. First the Americans mess us up and now the only people that can save us are the Chinese? It’s fans that should be running this club.’
However, many were more pragmatic, with one, Jay Williams, saying: ‘I’d take anyone’s money at the moment to get out Hicks and Gillett. This guy supposedly has the backing of China so he’ll have some funds. That’s what we need right now, cold cash to get us up and running again.’
With the Premier League requiring 10 days’ notice before conducting a rigorous investigation into any would-be new owner’s background, any deal is unlikely to be completed before the start of the new season.
However, the optimists at Anfield believe any deal could well go through in time for Hodgson to make use of his likely transfer windfall before the window shuts at the end of the month.
Any speedy deal could, however, require more transparency from Huang about his backers.
What's the vibe on Red Revolution?
Angus Fraser (former England cricketer)
I’m a bit nonplussed. It seems football is moving further and further away from the people. I obviously want Liverpool to do well and we are all very keen to see some stability after what has happened in the last few years but you do wonder where all this is going to end. Sometimes it seems as if the club are a franchise being traded around and that’s not something I’m comfortable with.
Paul Tomkins (Author of Dynasty: 50 Years of Shankly’s Liverpool)
I’ve had contact with hundreds of Liverpool fans on the issue. Opinion seems split between concern over an association with a country that has human rights issues, and excitement over the large amounts of money they might bestow. Being owned by the Chinese Government’s investment arm would present great commercial potential but political issues.
Andy Burnham (former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and an Everton fan)
The nature of the link between the companies and the Chinese Government raises questions. The exact nature of the link would need to be fully examined. The English game surely wants to avoid situations like we’ve seen at Liverpool, Manchester United and Portsmouth. Lessons have to be learned.
Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds front man)
The Premier League is open to all sorts of investors and you could question every one of them. Russian oligarchs, Middle Eastern families who control entire countries. As for my club, you feel any sale away from the two American clowns is a step in the right direction. It may prove not to be, but I’m very pro the move.
Pete Reilly (The View lead guitarist)
I don’t care where the money comes from, to be fair, as long as they keep Roy Hodgson, give him some money before the deadline and get us back to where we belong. That may sound harsh but football is far from lily-white so bring it on. It all looks positive to me.
Dave Kirby (Playwright and Liverpool fanatic)
The feeling is anyone will do as long as we get away from the Americans. Before former chairman David Moores and his chief executive, Rick Parry, sold us down the river, we could be choosy about who owned us. Not any more. Personally, the ethics would concern me but no-one cares.
Craig Phillips (Big Brother 1 winner)
I’ve been a fan all my life and I go along with the consensus that this is a great move. I remember, three years ago, the fans were behind the Americans and that theirs was better than the offer from the Middle East. But Hicks and Gillett have put us in the red and such is the ill feeling toward them that we’d welcome any sort of takeover. Anyway, we have a huge and old Chinese population in the city. They’ll be happy.