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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.