Liverpool Fans Seek $995 Million to Buy Soccer Club (Update2)

By Steven Downes

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Liverpool fans want to raise 500 million pounds ($995 million) to buy England's most successful soccer club from U.S. owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Share Liverpool FC is asking 100,000 supporters to each contribute at least 5,000 pounds to the fund, which will be used to pay for the club and a 300 million-pound stadium.

``Thousands of Liverpool fans have already demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs,'' Liverpool University lecturer Rogan Taylor, one of three men heading the group, said in a statement.

The plan is based on the business model of Barcelona and Real Madrid, which are owned by club members. By using a Web site to generate membership fees, the group is seeking to tap into Liverpool's global fan base and the growing interest in English soccer in Asia.

Liverpool fans have protested against Hicks and Gillett's ownership at recent games, expressing concern at their clashes with coach Rafael Benitez.

``Reiterating what we said last week, Liverpool FC is not for sale,'' Jonathan Brill, spokesman for Kop Football Ltd., the Hicks and Gillett company that owns Liverpool, said in a telephone interview tonight.

18 Titles

Liverpool, which won the last of its record 18 English league titles in 1990, is winless in five Premier League games and is seventh in the top flight, 17 points behind leaders Manchester United and Arsenal. Last night, it lost 1-0 at West Ham.

Hicks, owner of hockey's Dallas Stars and baseball's Texas Rangers, and Gillett, owner of hockey's Montreal Canadiens, bought Liverpool a year ago for 174 million pounds, after competition from Dubai International Capital LLC. On Jan. 25 the pair secured a 350 million-pound debt refinancing that will allow the five-time European champion to build a 71,000-seat arena about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) from its Anfield stadium.

While adding an extra 11,000 seats, the revised stadium plans will cost an estimated 50 million pounds less than a design which was abandoned last year.

``Large amounts of debt often devolves on to newly purchased clubs, but the fans know that, in the end, it will be they themselves who will have to pay it off through increased ticket prices,'' Taylor said. ``In such a case, why not simply buy the club yourselves?''

Share-Purchase Plan

In addition to Taylor, Share Liverpool FC includes Phil French, the chief executive officer of Supporters Direct, a government-funded soccer unit, and lawyer Kevin Jaquiss.

A similar share-purchase plan by Manchester United fans failed to prevent the 790 million-pound takeover of the club by U.S. billionaire Malcolm Glazer in 2005, even after Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest securities firm, offered Shareholders United a 100 million-pound loan.

Calls to Taylor and Sameer al-Ansari, the CEO of Dubai International, weren't immediately returned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Downes in London sdownes1@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: January 31, 2008 14:33 EST

I really wish Rangers fans would take the hint from the Brits and get the Rangers away from this asshole.