A Story Fete

Rumour has it that Liverpool Soccer Club may be following the same path as local rivals Manchester City Soccer Club. Apparently, a £500 million bid has been put in for the club by Middle Eastern company Dubai International Capital (DIC), the investment arm of Dubai’s government.

American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are said to be mulling this offer over. Hicks and Gillett bought the club in February 2007 and their reign at Anfield started off well with the record purchase of Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid and the promise of a new stadium.

However, it wasn’t long before the two wealthy businessmen began arguing over certain aspects of running the soccer club and the cracks in their relationship really began to show. Hicks and Gillett bought the soccer club on finance so any potential buyout would clear any lingering debts and leave manager Rafa Benitez with stacks of cash to spend in the January transfer window.

Sheikh Mohammed, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, is said to be the man behind the takeover bid. The Skeikh, now 57, is rumoured to be the seventh richest person in the world and his personal wealth is estimated to be around £7 billion.

Manager Rafa Benitez seems to be pleased with the news of the potential takeover saying “I have talked to the chairman and chief executive about this and I was pleased with what I heard. It is always good for a club to have more money and more possibilities.”

Liverpool Soccer Club, five times champions of Europe but yet to win the English Premier League, have given DIC permission to study their books ahead of the potential takeover. If the £500 million bid is successful, we will see the construction of a 60,000 capacity stadium at a cost of £200 million.

Rick Parry, Liverpool Chief Executive, also seems to be excited by the news of the takeover bid saying “This is the latest step on the road of finding the long-term investment that the club needs. This is very important in terms of the proposed new stadium, which is key to plans for the regeneration of the local community. On the pitch, Liverpool remains focused on winning and, here again, this is all about doing a deal that gives us the long-term resources to do that.” Liverpool have their soccer positions filled with some of Europes finest players and their fans demand they are challenging for major honors every year.

The news of the potential takeover is likely to be music to the ears of Liverpool Soccer Club fans, however, there will be those that won’t be tremendously happy about the news that yet another Premiership soccer club is facing a high-profile foreign takeover bid. Several Premiership soccer clubs have undergone foreign takeovers in the last few years including Manchester United, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and very recently Manchester City.