Liverpool seek proof and intent

ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP:LIVERPOOL HAVE told all prospective owners to prove they have the funds and intent to buy the club from Tom Hicks and George Gillett as they attempt to conclude a takeover before the transfer window closes.

At least four different parties have reaffirmed an interest in buying the club in the last week but none, as yet, has made an official offer to buy a club €421 million in debt and needing a new stadium. Kenny Huang, the businessman believed to have secured backing from the China Investment Corporation, has held talks with those conducting the sale and hopes to win majority approval from the Anfield board to usurp Hicks and Gillett as owners next week.

Yahya Kirdi, a Syrian former footballer with business connections in Canada, has claimed to be in advanced negotiations with Gillett. The Rhone Group, a private equity firm based in New York, and the Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser al-Kharafi have also returned to the process. Yet no one has made the first formal move to gain control.

Any recommended investor will be subject to the Premier League’s new owners and directors test – the prospect of the Chinese government buying Liverpool will not be a problem for the league, it is understood – but Anfield officials are anxious their choice has the resources to fund long-term aims, not simply buy the debt from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Huang made his interest known through RBS rather than the American owners, who cannot prevent a sale if outvoted by their fellow directors Martin Broughton, the Liverpool chairman, the managing director Christian Purslow and the commercial director Ian Ayre.

Gillett has reopened talks with Kirdi, but the board’s criteria will be to sell to the party who can prove they can clear the debt and attract the backing required to build the stadium on Stanley Park.

While there has been dialogue between Huang and Liverpool the talks have not reached a stage where the club are certain of his backers’ identity. The Chinese approach appears the most likely to succeed, although Liverpool will still be under American ownership by the time their league season begins on August 15th. The Premier League requires 10 days notice before any takeover can be completed.

Meanwhile, David Moyes has told Everton’s board of directors the club risk losing their main players unless they break the wage structure. The manager’s warning follows an admission from the Everton chief executive, Robert Elstone, the club are unlikely to leave Goodison Park “within the next five years”.

The Goodison futures of influential midfielders Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar are both uncertain with the pair yet to accept lucrative contract extensions offered this summer. Pienaar has 12 months remaining on his Everton contract and wants more than the €72,000-a-week offer to stay, while Arteta, who is under contract until 2012, would become the club’s highest earner should he accept a proposed €90,000-a-week extension.

Despite Moyes’s appeal, the offers to Arteta and Pienaar represent a marked increase on their existing contracts at Everton. The Spanish midfielder, who has been linked with Manchester City, Arsenal and Barcelona this summer, earns €54,000 a week, and the Everton manager believes improving the terms of existing players is a more pressing issue than new signings this summer.

Moyes, speaking at an Everton shareholders’ forum, said: “We cannot keep our best players if our wages don’t increase. That is the part we have to make sure we keep improving. We have to make sure we keep the players we have got at the moment even if we can’t go out and spend on new talent all the time.”

The chairman Bill Kenwright told shareholders he was “more hopeful we will start the season with the players we ended the season with last year”, albeit with the caveat: “You can never say that something will definitely happen until it does.”

Kenwright has been unable to transform the club’s finances through investment or a new stadium, with the government rejecting a proposed relocation to Kirkby last November. At the forum Everton announced plans for a €10.8 million retail development behind Goodison which, subject to planning permission, will be completed within a year. The complex will house a shop, museum, cafe, corporate hospitality and offices, freeing up space inside the stadium for corporate facilities.

Elstone, Everton’s chief executive, said financial assistance from the club’s commercial partner Sodexo and the retail partner Kitbag ensured the project would be “self-funded”.

He said: “There is no net cost to the club. In fact, it is cash-positive from the start.”