Liverpool FC fans’ buyout plan: Full details revealed

David Bartlett looks at a £500m Continental-style ownership plan to bring Liverpool FC back to its loyal fans
by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post


FANS last night unveiled their vision for the future ownership of Liverpool FC under a “one member, one vote” scheme.
Rogan Taylor, a Kop season ticket holder and a director of the Football Industry Group at the University of Liverpool, is leading the buy-out campaign and led a press conference last night.
He explained the details of how the possible £500m buy-out of current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett would work.
The Share Liverpool FC plan is for 100,000 fans to each buy one share for £5,000, with no one allowed to hold more than one share and which would not be ordinarily tradeable.
The membership would vote for a board of directors for a fixed term, but not for the manager as his appointment would be down to the board.
Shareholders would not have an automatic right to tickets but a scheme to give preferential treatment to the first 20,000 who sign up is proposed.
Last night a website – www.shareliverpoolfc.co.uk – was set up to gauge support for the plans before due diligence is carried out and a legal constitution set up.
If a constitution is set up, a bank would be sought as a partner where the £5,000 contributions could be kept.
Dr Taylor said the group was hoping the two Bishops of Liverpool will agree to watch over the accounts to certify all the money is there.
The group is being advised by the Government-supported Supporters Direct, which helps set up supporters’ trusts, and by Manchester-based legal experts Cobbetts.
Dr Taylor said: “This may or may not be a historic day, we don’t know. It’s the last day of the transfer window of January, 2008.
“Perhaps it’s appropriate that we might talk about the greatest transfer of power of a football club to the fans who love it.” The website will be the main mechanism to judge popularity for the idea but public meetings in Liverpool and in London are also planned soon.
Many Anfield fans are furious a £350m loans package secured by Hicks and Gillett last week will saddle the club with massive interest payments of up to £30m a year.
“Our argument is not with the current owners of the football club, it’s with the structure,” said Dr Rogan.
“Sometimes we feel that as a football club we are standing on a street corner in a short skirt waiting for a passing punter.”
He said the idea was to replicate other European clubs like Barcelona and the majority of German teams which are owned by their fans.
“This is a serious proposal. There are a huge number of Liverpool fans, not just here but all over the world – this is not simply about a local issue.
“This story has been round the world five or six times already today.”
He said that, in the space of six or seven hours, his email inbox had received 380 emails, and had been contacted by the Chicago supporters branch to offer their support.
“If you want to give, what to my mind is the greatest gift you could ever give to your football club, now is your chance.”
He said together the fans could deliver a debt-free legally secure football club run democratically on a one member, one vote basis which could never be bought or sold ever again.
“This is not a pipe dream, this is not a bunch of fans in a pub corner saying why don’t we?”
“But we will not know, as we dip our toe in the water this afternoon how warm the water is. It might be lukewarm, it might be pleasantly warm, it might be boiling hot, we just don’t know.
“We are not asking for a penny at this stage.”
“This will be done in an appropriate way, not a fly by night operation.”
He was asked whether he thought Hicks and Gillett would sell.
He said if fans could come up with hard cash offered in good faith, “you can deny them, you can say no, but how successfully can you really hope to plan to go forward in the teeth of a bid that represents hundreds of thousands of football fans who want to own the club?”
The only way that question could be answered would be by “sitting down at the table” with the owners with the hard cash ready to negotiate.
Dave Boyle, deputy chief executive of Supporters Direct, said: “The question comes down to as a supporter are you so concerned about what has been happening at your club for the past few years that you are prepared to put your hand in your pocket?” Dr Taylor added: “I first had this idea around 12 months ago when the Dubai Investment Company and the American pair that wanted it were negotiating.
“At the moment I had the thought I wished I had that thought 12 months ago.
“I am sure it’s the kind of thing that he [former owner David Moores] certainly would like to have looked closely at.”
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Comment :

Well, many top European clubs are owned by its supporters. So, it's about time the fans come in and show the world how much we love this club. I am all the way for it! - JohnFong
01 February, 2008 20:59