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Thursday, August 05, 2010

Liverpool up for sale to the highest bidder - going, going ...

BBC Sport are reporting that Liverpool are close to being sold to a "Canadian bid" being led by Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi

(Source : BBC Sport : Canadian consortium 'close to buying Liverpool' )

There is also talk of up to six rival bids, including Chinese investor Kenny Huang who is the head of Hong Kong-based investment company QSL Sports Ltd, is thought to value the club at around £325m.

It's all played with a positive spin, with talk of funding to include repayment of the existing bank debt and financing of a new stadium in Liverpool's Stanley Park - as well as transfer funds being made available to new manager Roy Hodgson.

But I really do not like the sound of the description of "consortium of Canadian and Middle East investors" - because if you are talking about business investors then surely these people want to eventually take more out of the football club than they put in - after all isn't that the whole point of investing?

This is where the idea that a football club is a business starts to unravel, as the main point of a football club is to play football not to return a profit to stakeholders. I cannot understand why these faceless people want to put in 600m, 700m or even 800m into any football club as an "investment".

Where is the eventual payoff to these businesses- and how will it be good for Liverpool FC? What do you think?

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