Soldato
don't mind being like arsenal then.
Liverpool Takeover Thread
- Thread starter antijoke
- Start date
Associate
perhaps he is just being pessimistic, thinking it's not gonna happen, and we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit...
I do think Liverpool will get sold this time though, just because RBS will force them to.
I do think Liverpool will get sold this time though, just because RBS will force them to.
Would you say it's:
a) Almost as funny as discussing utterly unlikely transfer targets for our clubs?
b) Not as funny as assuming we can manage teams better than their actual managers?
c) Funnier than trying to pretend the game wouldn't benefit from video replays?
d) All of the above?
Because if its D, we might as well close this forum.
Yes it is, it's just funny reading about how people think the Chinese would expect a return on investment etc. It's amusing that is all.
I have high hopes the deal will be done.
None of those, as I said above it just amuses me reading what people are saying with reference to what the the Chinese would want out of Liverpool.
That is just amusing to me that is all.
By RONALD BLUM (AP) – 1 hour ago
NEW YORK — A group of Chinese investors said Friday that any offer it makes to buy Liverpool from Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. won't enrich the embattled American co-owners.
Marc Ganis, whose Chicago-based company Sportscorp Ltd. has helped form the investment group, said it first contacted Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton on Monday, a day after reports of a possible bid first surfaced.
"We haven't submitted a formal proposal but we submitted the broad parameters of what a proposal would look like to see if it would be welcomed, and it was," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, hours after he returned to the United States from China.
A company called QSL Sports Limited would be controlling owner of the limited liability corporation that would own Liverpool FC. QSL is co-headed by Kenneth Huang, a Hong Kong businessman, and Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund.
In an interview arranged through Hill & Knowlton Hong Kong, Ganis said those two would be the only owners involved in the management of the club. Other investors would be passive, and each would own no more than 20 percent.
China Investment Corp. — the country's sovereign wealth fund — would not have a direct ownership stake in the club. However, Ganis said it may be part of an investment vehicle organized by Yang and his financial team that would have a passive ownership interest.
Ganis said the group had four primary goals if it makes a bid:
_Leave Liverpool debt free.
_Make a significant equity investment and construct the long-delayed new stadium to replace Anfield.
_Invest a large amount that would be available for player transfers.
_Have an Asian initiative to expand Liverpool's fan base and commercial activities with the goal of creating new economic value for the club using QSL's platform in China.
"What is not one of our goals in the enrichment of the existing owners," Ganis said, "If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."
Barclays has told potential bidders they will have to show they have the financing to go through with the proposals. After QSL's interest emerged, former Syrian club player Yahya Kirdi claimed Wednesday that he was fronting a consortium of investors from the Middle East and Canada that was close to completing a takeover.
Liverpool has won 18 English league titles — but none since 1990 — and its record has been matched by Manchester United. Beset by infighting between Hicks and Gillett plus player injuries, it failed to qualify for this season's Champions League, losing tens of millions of dollars in revenue. But captain Steven Gerrard and star forward Fernando Torres decided to remain with the club under new manager Roy Hodgson, who replaced Rafa Benitez after last season. Ganis said any deal would not close until well after the summer transfer window ends Aug. 31.
Hicks, whose Texas Rangers were auctioned this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, bought Liverpool with Gillett three years ago in a deal valued at $431 million. Hicks said he wants $950 million to $1.25 billion for the club, whose known debt last stood at $375 million. Ganis said his group will not bid close to that. "If anybody wants to, good luck," he said, without disclosing what his group is willing to bid. "We know what we would be prepared to do. If somebody else wants to look at it in a different way, it's their money. That would be their business, not ours."
His group isn't concerned about high-spending owners in the Premier League, who include Manchester City's Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Chelsea's Roman Abramovich. Ganis said the Financial Fair Play rules that begin for European soccer this season will help curb extreme spending on transfers. "That creates certain constraints that many observers feel are quite responsible and will reduce the risk of irrational money being spent," he said. "But even at that, Liverpool is and always should be one of the highest-spending clubs in all of football. And our financial models presume Liverpool will be at or near the top in spending on players every year."
Ganis said that they have been impressed in many ways with the manner in which Liverpool is being operated.
"From what we have seen from afar, many of the people currently running Liverpool are doing a good job," he said. "There shouldn't be an expectation there would be a mass upheaval if we submit and are approved." Ganis and the China-based group began forming last spring as a potential investor with another group that evaluated a potential investment in Liverpool. Ganis contacted the Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds Liverpool's debt, and was put in contact last week with Broughton and Barclays Capital, which is attempting to sell the club for the co-owners.
QSL, in conjunction with the Chinese government, owns and operated two professional sports leagues and one minor league. QSL also owns sports publications and in September will roll out an all-sports website.
NEW YORK — A group of Chinese investors said Friday that any offer it makes to buy Liverpool from Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. won't enrich the embattled American co-owners.
Marc Ganis, whose Chicago-based company Sportscorp Ltd. has helped form the investment group, said it first contacted Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton on Monday, a day after reports of a possible bid first surfaced.
"We haven't submitted a formal proposal but we submitted the broad parameters of what a proposal would look like to see if it would be welcomed, and it was," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, hours after he returned to the United States from China.
A company called QSL Sports Limited would be controlling owner of the limited liability corporation that would own Liverpool FC. QSL is co-headed by Kenneth Huang, a Hong Kong businessman, and Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund.
In an interview arranged through Hill & Knowlton Hong Kong, Ganis said those two would be the only owners involved in the management of the club. Other investors would be passive, and each would own no more than 20 percent.
China Investment Corp. — the country's sovereign wealth fund — would not have a direct ownership stake in the club. However, Ganis said it may be part of an investment vehicle organized by Yang and his financial team that would have a passive ownership interest.
Ganis said the group had four primary goals if it makes a bid:
_Leave Liverpool debt free.
_Make a significant equity investment and construct the long-delayed new stadium to replace Anfield.
_Invest a large amount that would be available for player transfers.
_Have an Asian initiative to expand Liverpool's fan base and commercial activities with the goal of creating new economic value for the club using QSL's platform in China.
"What is not one of our goals in the enrichment of the existing owners," Ganis said, "If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."
Barclays has told potential bidders they will have to show they have the financing to go through with the proposals. After QSL's interest emerged, former Syrian club player Yahya Kirdi claimed Wednesday that he was fronting a consortium of investors from the Middle East and Canada that was close to completing a takeover.
Liverpool has won 18 English league titles — but none since 1990 — and its record has been matched by Manchester United. Beset by infighting between Hicks and Gillett plus player injuries, it failed to qualify for this season's Champions League, losing tens of millions of dollars in revenue. But captain Steven Gerrard and star forward Fernando Torres decided to remain with the club under new manager Roy Hodgson, who replaced Rafa Benitez after last season. Ganis said any deal would not close until well after the summer transfer window ends Aug. 31.
Hicks, whose Texas Rangers were auctioned this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Worth, bought Liverpool with Gillett three years ago in a deal valued at $431 million. Hicks said he wants $950 million to $1.25 billion for the club, whose known debt last stood at $375 million. Ganis said his group will not bid close to that. "If anybody wants to, good luck," he said, without disclosing what his group is willing to bid. "We know what we would be prepared to do. If somebody else wants to look at it in a different way, it's their money. That would be their business, not ours."
His group isn't concerned about high-spending owners in the Premier League, who include Manchester City's Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Chelsea's Roman Abramovich. Ganis said the Financial Fair Play rules that begin for European soccer this season will help curb extreme spending on transfers. "That creates certain constraints that many observers feel are quite responsible and will reduce the risk of irrational money being spent," he said. "But even at that, Liverpool is and always should be one of the highest-spending clubs in all of football. And our financial models presume Liverpool will be at or near the top in spending on players every year."
Ganis said that they have been impressed in many ways with the manner in which Liverpool is being operated.
"From what we have seen from afar, many of the people currently running Liverpool are doing a good job," he said. "There shouldn't be an expectation there would be a mass upheaval if we submit and are approved." Ganis and the China-based group began forming last spring as a potential investor with another group that evaluated a potential investment in Liverpool. Ganis contacted the Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds Liverpool's debt, and was put in contact last week with Broughton and Barclays Capital, which is attempting to sell the club for the co-owners.
QSL, in conjunction with the Chinese government, owns and operated two professional sports leagues and one minor league. QSL also owns sports publications and in September will roll out an all-sports website.
Associate
Think the shop best start working on that order of 1 billion home shirts soon, SG will be a happy man seeing as everyone will want #8 
Think the shop best start working on that order of 1 billion home shirts soon, SG will be a happy man seeing as everyone will want #8
Funny you say that. Sporting iD (the company that produce the badges for EPL shirts) produced a list of EPL players that sold the most official shirts worldwide last season. Torres was actually top with Gerrard second and Rooney third.
Soldato
Would love to see the chinese buy liverpool just hear "when the reds go marching..."
Caporegime
- Joined
- 1 Mar 2008
- Posts
- 26,303
You'll never Wok alone... 
Soldato
Soldato
I'd hate for the club to become like City, much rather take time and build a team than throw money at it and expect instant results.
I would hate a City situation to be honest, it just doesn't feel right!
As i said before, the club actually makes quite a bit of profit every year if you ignore the insane interest payments.
I wouldnt say no to an initial cash injection of say £50m or so for one or two quality players (Gerrard aint getting any younger!) but following that the club should pretty much fund itself transfer wise.
-edit-
No, not quite an arsenal situation! It would kill me to know that the team is in desperate need of one or two key replacements *cough* keeper *cough* but the manager refusing to spend any money
As i said before, the club actually makes quite a bit of profit every year if you ignore the insane interest payments.
I wouldnt say no to an initial cash injection of say £50m or so for one or two quality players (Gerrard aint getting any younger!) but following that the club should pretty much fund itself transfer wise.
-edit-
No, not quite an arsenal situation! It would kill me to know that the team is in desperate need of one or two key replacements *cough* keeper *cough* but the manager refusing to spend any money
Soldato
Weird this. Was talking about the takeover with my mate in the pub on Weds. Neither of us want our owners, but neither of us want a mega rich 'buy the league' type owner.
We just want a good, traditional, humble football club back. Sadly, those days are gone and to get one of those, you have to look a lonnnnnnng way down the leagues.
Most of my season ticket holding friends have given up theirs this year out of frustration. Out of 15 that used to regularly go to Liverpool games week in week out for 20+years, the 2010/11 season has three of us. I doubt they would even come back if the good times rolled in a la Man City/ Chelsea. Buying the league just isn't the Liverpool way....
We just want a good, traditional, humble football club back. Sadly, those days are gone and to get one of those, you have to look a lonnnnnnng way down the leagues.
Most of my season ticket holding friends have given up theirs this year out of frustration. Out of 15 that used to regularly go to Liverpool games week in week out for 20+years, the 2010/11 season has three of us. I doubt they would even come back if the good times rolled in a la Man City/ Chelsea. Buying the league just isn't the Liverpool way....
Caporegime
The Sryian, Yahya Kirdi and his group hopes to have a deal signed to buy the club by kick off on Sunday!
SSN right now!
They say they will pay off all the debt and give funds to build new ground in Stanley park. They have also told SSN that he (Yahya Kirdi) is not a billionaire but he is well off, according to the groups spokesperson. I'm guessing that is where they other backers from Middle East and Canada come in.
SSN right now!
They say they will pay off all the debt and give funds to build new ground in Stanley park. They have also told SSN that he (Yahya Kirdi) is not a billionaire but he is well off, according to the groups spokesperson. I'm guessing that is where they other backers from Middle East and Canada come in.
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This Kirdi stuff appears to be nothing more than an attempt to increase price.
The Chinese bid gets out to in the open and the next day (at 2am for some reason) Kirdi is emailing SSN telling them about his bid? SOS announce that they will be meeting Huang sometime in the next week to discuss his bid and within hours Kirdi claims he's reached an agreement to buy the club.
Jim Boardman wrote a great article on Kirdi, rubbishing all his claims about links to the UAE, being a well known businessman who brokers major deals etc and summed it up by saying that although he's well off by ordinary people's standards, he'd struggle to be able to afford a box at Anfield let alone by the club.
The Chinese bid gets out to in the open and the next day (at 2am for some reason) Kirdi is emailing SSN telling them about his bid? SOS announce that they will be meeting Huang sometime in the next week to discuss his bid and within hours Kirdi claims he's reached an agreement to buy the club.
Jim Boardman wrote a great article on Kirdi, rubbishing all his claims about links to the UAE, being a well known businessman who brokers major deals etc and summed it up by saying that although he's well off by ordinary people's standards, he'd struggle to be able to afford a box at Anfield let alone by the club.
Soldato
It's also well known he's a family friend of the Hicks. The board should see straight through it.
Caporegime
BP should buy us and throw money at the club rather than waste it on trying to stop a bit of oil killing a few ducks.