Football Special Report: Liverpool’s expenditure plans, transfers and signings during the summers, deal with QSL’s Huang, player controversies (Part 4)
It is no secret that the Liverpool board is in a severe financial crisis because of which the English manager Roy Hodgson is under extreme pressure. He has limited resources and with one he has, he has to pray before stepping on each step that it does not become the one that makes him fall down.
The Chinese investment company QSL has been promising the Liverpool board that when the transfer of ownership is complete, Liverpool board will be given enough funds to revamp their squad and still have enough money to sign in a couple of world class players.
It is no secret that the Hong Kong based investment group is one of strongest sports related powers and their major motive is to invest in sports. They just recently indulged in a 188 billion pound project and the Chinese businessman Kenny Huang himself owns the National Basketball League and the National Baseball League in China. He even has shares in the American National Basketball Association (NBA).
Huang does have an outrageous side to his character. His recent statements like, ‘We can buy Lionel Messi to play for Liverpool’ have been met by a lot of confusion by experts and for two reasons. Firstly, the football Argentinean football legend Lionel Messi, who plays at Barcelona, has a buyout clause of 250 million pounds and that is an amount in which you could buy clubs.
Secondly, if he opts for an attitude like that, it would include him in the eccentrics like the Manchester City owner, Shiekh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich. If Huang was to spend money like these two owners, he would have to hire one of the best analysts on the planet, so that his plans don’t backfire and get him into trouble like Chelsea.
The Blues are currently being warned by both the Champions League board and the Football Association, that the club has to balance out its expenditures. As they are far more than their income, courtesy of their Russian owner, and they would have to include 6 more home bred payers in their squad to complete the target of 8, right now they are failing miserably at accomplishing both tasks.
This is not the first time a group has approached to buy the English club. After the American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett set out Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton for selling the club, he has been met by several groups and earlier in the summer, he was approached by an Arabian group but what seemed like a done deal came to a halt when the clubs disagreed on the price.
The American owners are presenting a price of 800 million pounds for the club, which in reality was its price about a year back when the club was showing much more promise. Now however the real price is estimated around 550 million pounds to 700 million pounds. QSL so are not willing to pay more than half that price and therefore the process is being delayed.
Liverpool is currently in debts of a bit more than 350 million pounds and that has made them unstable over the years. They are desperately looking for new owner especially after the severe lambasting from former owner David Moore and fans.
QSL on the other hand is proving difficult to read too. There are rumours that the club is funded by the Chinese government. The truth in that matter is that the company does play a very large role in promoting sports in China and for that they do get money from the Chinese authorities but sources have revealed they are in talks with the Royal Bank of Scotland for loans, which has brought a new picture on the whole. This linking to RBS could refer a major shift on the company strategies and their stronghold and bases.
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