Liverpool owner Tom Hicks asks Rick Parry to resign

zocoss SG

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has asked chief executive Rick Parry to resign his role at the club. Hicks has been battling to keep control of the club in the face of massive opposition from fans and a sustained takeover bid from Dubai International Capital, who have agreed a deal in principle to buy out his partner George Gillett.

Gillett is happy to sell his share in the club, but has fallen out with Hicks and would prefer to sell to DIC. Hicks, meanwhile, has been trying to raise capital to by his partner out and retain full contol. Parry has fallen out with Hicks who has been involved in negotiations for both sides and last month called for for a quick resolution to a damaging public spat between the Americans.

"My plea is that something happens this week," Parry said at the time. "There is a need for a degree of urgency but it is urgent to get it right, not urgent to come up with the wrong solution. To move onwards and upwards we need a resolution but I don't think this is going to have a direct bearing on the players, that is pretty unlikely.

"It is certainly not conducive to long-term planning and managing the club. Over time, if we fail to deliver and fail to perform, that is when star players become dissatisfied but that is not an immediate fear from where I sit."

pigsticker SG

wtf...

redDUST SG

just rumors.

stellazio SG

hmm thats bad..

zocoss SG

Actually i won't say its a bad thing cos Rick Parry has been in this job for so long and he has not done a decent job out of it. Liverpool are losing their popularity to Chelsea these days... And it shouldn't be happening base on the club's history and fan base. Parry seems to be sitting back and letting past glory carry the club brand. Chelsea on the other hand is pushing hard into China, America, Asia... Kenyon is doing his job but Parry don't seem to be. Maybe a change of CEO may be a good thing after all...

zocoss SG

LIVERPOOL’S off-the-field turmoil has finally erupted into all-out war. Co-owner Tom Hicks demanded Rick Parry’s resignation as chief executive in a letter sent to Anfield yesterday. Yet he is unable to force Parry out as the American only controls 50 per cent of the club, leaving him powerless to wield the axe.

The fact his relationship with partner George Gillett has broken down to such an extent that the two men no longer talk means the club has been left in total chaos. Parry learned of the contents of the letter while in London to attend Javier Mascherano’s failed appeal into a two-game ban. But he is prepared to sit tight, knowing Hicks alone does not have the power to sack him, and insists he remains focused on ‘serving the club to the best of my ability’.

Hicks’ amazing demand came just 48 hours after Liverpool reached their third Champions League semi-final in four years. The Texan billionaire is said to hold Parry responsible for Liverpool’s poor commercial performance. Their £133.9m turnover is nearly £80m adrift of Manchester United.

Hicks also claims Rafa Benitez has told him he is unhappy at the way Parry has handled transfer dealings — and the Kop boss has had an uneasy relationship with the chief executive for some time. Yet rather than casting a shadow over the Spaniard’s future as well, it actually places Benitez in a stronger position with Hicks throwing his support behind the manager.

Parry publicly called for an end to the row between the two owners recently, which did not go down well with Hicks. He is also convinced the chief executive is siding with Gillett, who he sat next to at Tuesday’s victory against Arsenal. Parry’s position is now almost untenable knowing one of the owners is determined to remove him.

If Hicks succeeds, commercial director Ian Ayre — who was appointed in August — is likely to step in as chief executive for the short term. All this comes on the same day Dubai Investment Capital publicly declared they will not make a fresh bid for Liverpool until Gillett and Hicks ‘sort out their problems’.

DIC chief executive Sameer Al Ansari insisted the consortium would ‘still love to own’ the club. But, in an interview with Arabian Business magazine, he said: “You have two partners who do not see eye to eye. And we decided that we pull out completely. Let them sort out their problems. “We would still love to own the club but we are not going to put ourselves in a difficult situation where we make the investment but we have no control over club.”