By Sportsmail Reporter Last updated at 11:22 AM on 24th September 2009
- The startling revelation was published in a prospectus back in March by investment banks Rothschild and Merrill Lynch to attract potential investors in the club.
- The £20m spending cap, which will also include wage increases accruing from contract renewals, means that Anfield boss Rafa Benitez must continue to sell before he can buy over the next fives years as Liverpool chase their first league title since 1991.
- The prospectus, obtained by Bloomberg News, provides a sense of how desperately Liverpool's owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett need new finance and reveals that the Americans were considering increasing the average ticket price by eight per cent to help ease the club's debt.
- The underlying lack of finance for Benitez remains a problem. It might not be as dire a position for the club as suggested by the banner unveiled by Liverpool fans before the Carling Cup tie with Leeds at Elland Road on Tuesday – 'We are the new Leeds,' it read – but Benitez is clearly limited in his options in the transfer market.
- In this summer's transfer window, Liverpool were forced to offload Xabi Alonso (to Real Madrid for £30m), Alvaro Arbeloa (also to Real for £3.5m), Sebastian Leto (to Panathinaikos for £3.5m) and Paul Anderson (to Nottingham Forest for £250,000), in order to fund the purchases of Alberto Aquilani (from Roma for £20m), Chris Mavinga (from Paris St Germain, undisclosed), Glen Johnson (from Portsmouth, £17m) and Sotirios Kyrgiakos (from AEK Athens, £1.5m).
- The section of the Rothschild/Merrill Lynch document relating to 'player transfer payments' states: 'Management believes that the normalised long-run level of new net player capital expenditure is £20m.
- 'The accompanying data suggests 'long run' means the next five years. This figure 'will grow together with increases in media broadcasting revenues,' the bankers promise.
Though revenues from British broadcasters are expected to drop, overseas rights should grow before 2014. - Hicks and Gillett eventually decided against an increase in ticket price, which would have come as the majority of the 20 Premier League clubs decided to freeze or reduce prices of some tickets for this season.
- But other details of Hicks and Gillett's future commercial strategy for Liverpool, outlined in the document, include plans to convert 1,000 regular seats at Anfield into corporate seats and the creation of Liverpool-branded academies.
- New secondary sponsors will be targeted and catering facilities improved to help realise ambitions to increase commercial revenue from £59m to £111.4m in the next five years – a lofty target.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/
UtusanLFC:
The best solution is for Rafa really to get rid of the surplus and Non Performing Players FIRST i.e Voronin, Lucas and Babel. And go for more English (adhere to the new FA ruling for more homegrown players... perhaps Joe Cole would be a good target... or Aaron Lennon... hehehe)
4 comments:
huhu.yes, football nowadays is all about money n balancing the owner account books. if rafa must sell, do sell babel, dossena n maybe voronin due to age n perfomance factors. include nemeth, pachecho and spearing. as 4 lucas, he is an exception as he is ever improving on games basis. gerrard once stated that to give this kid a chance because he reckons that the kid posses a lot of talent n might turn into a world beater. let not forget this is "the steven gerard" (captain fantastic) we are talking about.
lennon and joe cole is not a home grown player for liverpool..
homegrown yg di maksudkan ialah pemain yang berlatih di dlm akademi pasukan tersebut sejak dia mula mendapat kontrak profesional pertamanya (lebih kurang 15-16 tahun) tanpa mengira apa warganegaranya...
so, kalau beli lennon dan cole pun, tak boleh dianggap sebagai homegrown
Bro.,
are you sure about this? as long as it is English, that definition tak aplicable. Dia terlaksana solely for foreigners - non-English players. Mari kita sama-sama selidik lebih mendalam.
"As of next season clubs will be required to have a squad named of up to 25 players, of which no more than 17 can be over the age of 21 and not home grown," said Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.
"The definition of home grown is trained for three years under the age of 21 by somebody in the English and Welsh professional system.
"Clubs will have to declare their 25 at the end of August when the window shuts and then again at the end of January."
Scudamore denies the move will encourage clubs to hoard young foreign players and claims the England team will ultimately reap the reward.
"It's not in the club's interests to stockpile players. It will make buying home-grown talent more attractive," he said.
"We're not going down the route of a nationality test but what this will mean is that you just can't buy a team from abroad.
"We think it will give clubs an extra incentive to invest in youth. We think that one of the benefits will be that it will help the England team."
All 20 Premier League members also agreed to adhere to a set of financial reporting rules designed to protect the viability and sustainability of the clubs.
---------------------------------
So Amirul,
I supposed my version is correct. The rules is for non English players only. So if the foreigner have been in the academy for 3 years so he is eligible. But those with English passport, is ok with them. Because the whole target for the introduction of the system is to benefit the England players.
Post a Comment