KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Businessman Huang in LFC talks?

Liverpool are expecting to welcome new owners in the next four to six weeks, according to club secretary Ian Silvester.

Six potential investors are involved in the battle for control of the Anfield club but Hong Kong-based businessman Kenny Huang is understood to the firm favourite to replace current owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks at the helm.

Huang is working on behalf of a Chinese consortium, who have strong links with the country's government, and has enlisted the services of Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp Ltd, in a bid to begin work a new stadium in Stanley Park should their bid be successful.

Gilett and Hicks pledged to put 'a shovel in the ground' as part of plans for a new home for the Reds within 60 days of taking over the club three-and-a-half years ago but the project has been shelved due to the ongoing financial problems at Anfield.

The Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays Capital are both involved in the sale process, which is being overseen by British Airways chief Martin Broughton, in a bid to end Liverpool's debt-ridden days under the Americans.

Silvester, who was appointed secretary by Liverpool last year following Bryce Morrison's sudden death, admits that it is this pressure from RBS and BarCap that could see a sale completed as early as before the close of the transfer window on September 1.

"From what I understand, and that's all I can say, that the urgency is there due to the pressure from the banks so I would anticipate that something will be happening within the next four to six weeks or so", he said.

Ganis claims that unlike Gillett and Hicks, Huang's group will make good on their pledge to ensure that the club will remain debt-free as well as providing a significant transfer budget to Roy Hodgson as well as funding to build a new stadium.

The president of the Chicago-based firm also insisted that their bid, if accepted, would not allow Gillett and Hicks to walk away from Anfield with any profit, as had been their intention when they placed the club up for sale in April.

He said: "What is not one of our goals is the enrichment of the existing owners.

"If we submit a proposal and it is accepted, it would be focused on the future and not the past."

However fans remain concerned by the grand pledges being made by would-be owners and supporters' union Spirit of Shankly have urged Broughton and the rest of the Liverpool board to act in the club's best interests and choose the Americans' successors wisely.

A spokesman said: "With so much speculation and misinformation, we cannot be sure of the intentions and resources of ‘interested parties’.

"The club must be sold to those who are ‘fit and proper’ and who will be ‘true custodians’ who have the necessary expertise and resources to restore our great club to its rightful place.

"Those responsible for overseeing the sale need to ensure that, as a minimum, any new owner is the right person for the football club and it’s supporters, not for the profit they can provide to greed driven businessmen.

"The long-term future of this football club, as well as any investment in it, is entirely dependent on the goodwill and support of the fans.

"Should we have new owners, we need to know what role supporters can play, to make sure the problems of the past three years are not repeated and to make sure that supporter issues are heard."

winning the league means being the best team over 38 games, if you finish with more points than any other team you've earned it. sorry mate but times change, money has changed and so has football. its bigger than ever before world wide you should know this u you have seen it change first hand over the years but you are completely oblivious to it. when the teams who are winning are spending money and we are spending nothing its only inevitable that we will fall so far beyond them we may never taste success again. wether you're a mid table team or a the very bottom of the league money in football is totally different to what it was in the 80's... this is the premiership not the first division. the rise in finance and currency is different too, i bet 30 years ago £1 would go a long way compared to now but i'm sure you have a good moan about that at the bus stop too.

the season before last we lost out on winning the league by how many points? if we won it would it have been earned in your books? after some big money signings like torres and mascherano etc? our club is in horrific debt when it shouldn't be and we've lost ground with teams like man u, chelsea and arsenal and will continue to if the debt isn't cleared. with our earnings with such a huge fan base which you love to criticise so much, it just doesn't add up.

so it depends what type of fan you are mate, if our current position satisfies you and you enjoy seeing our club being the laughing stock of the premier league then you need to wake up and smell the coffee. i'm one of many fans who wants the debt cleared and the new stadium we need to ensure our future regardless of my age i just want whats best for my club. i live over the water in wallasey if that makes me an out of towner i dont care, my dad, grandad, great grandad were all fans and i was born a liverpool fan and this is my club and i dont know any different. if you have a problem with that then fine. it's quite obvious you get a kick out of drawing attention to yourself and making controversial comments. you are complaining about a £30 rise in taxes for season tickets and blaming "out of towners" as the reason for it. anyone with a brain would understand that more fans = more money and we are the best fans in the world. how can you call them glory hunters if we "haven't won anything for 20 years" like i keep hear you saying. wake up

I agree with that post completely, he's moaning about a 30 quid rise in season tickets yet to fans who haven't got season tickets the price is more. All in all I think it's a more level playing field, youl have maybe 5-6 teams challenging for the title, so it's no given that wel even win it if we do get money

So according to you, your not bothered how many fans come from outside the City just as long as they bring loads and loads of money with them. If this is so, you are not bothered that the Clubs local identity is lost and it is lost when you have a ground full of Out of Town Fans and Foreign fans who you have nothing in common with and cant relate to.
Lets go even further shall we, If the ground has no local fans, it will no longer represent the people of the City, so why call the club Liverpool Football Club, why have a Liver Bird as it's emblem and why not build this new stadium if it ever gets built in somewhere like Milton Keynes where most Liverpool Fans can get to it a whole lot easier.
My own thoughts on the matter are simple, Out of Town and Foreign fans are important to the football Club and they do pay an important role, but so do local fans and the local fans have now been swallowed up where there are hardly any scouse voices on a match day, this cant be right for the clubs identity.
What should of happend was a certain number of tickets should be set aside for visiting Out of Town and foreign fans and most tickets should go to locals with maybe tickets sent around Schools and youth centres which would safegaurd the clubs local fans for future generations so that dads could take there children. If the stadium held 90k this could maybe all be done so we could all have tickets but unfortunately it is not an ideal world so measures should of been taken years ago to avoid what we have now, lets just hope if a new stadium does get built the club will not make mistakes regarding tickets and where they are distributed and whats left of ant identity the club may have left will be protected.

i agree

errrrr.... well, seen as im not from the city why would i have a problem with it???

i might only live 10mins away but im not a scouser. does that not give me the right to support my football club? listen, not every kid that grows up in liverpool will live there for the rest of their lives, some people move away and have kids elsewhere and some people move to the city. what you dont understand is that people are born fans of this club and they are 100% genuine. the more fans we have the better because ours are second to none, at least until i met you. im at the ground every game (3 days before, on matchday and then the day after) and your comments are so outrageously exaggerated its unreal. almost every time i've been the match i'm surrounded by scousers. i drink in the arkles and never had seen any of your thoughts brought to my attention. you watch a team of foreigners week in week out mate.

the clubs identity is perceived from what happens on the pitch, this is a historical football club that is known for magical, historic football matches. the club represents the city, the city is full of immigrants (mostly asian, african and polish - but im sure you dont mind jerzy dudek saving a penalty that won us our 5th european championship do you? nah didnt think so) also students and the city just so happened to be the capital of culture in 2008. liverpool as a city is renowned for a lot of famous people and its landmarks. wether you like it or not it is a huge tourist attraction world wide.

as for allocating tickets... well protected from what? being supported? are you f*cking thick? everyone has the right and can buy a ticket if they please, the locals having the biggest advantage with the ticket offices being on their very doorstep. why should the club allocate anyone tickets if the ground is full of liverpool supporters every game? its simple, first come first serve. how many years have fans waited to get a season ticket at liverpool? it has a huge waiting list. is every kid in liverpool just going to stop liking football? absolutely not, it gets bigger and bigger. the club does alot for local kids haven't you heard of reducate? probably not because you chat absolute sh!te and live in a your own little world.

there are far worse problems at this club and if you think ticket allocations for local kids is the biggest one then you are most certainly a very deluded person. i take it you dont have anything else to say about the points i made in my previous post too.

your wasting ya time mate

I live 10 mins outside the city as well. My dad is a full scouser he lived in Anfield for the first 20 years of his life until he got married and moved out the city. I was brought up to support Liverpool because my dad has supported Liverpool all his life. I'm not going to change that because I'm a 10 minute train journey from Liverpool. Want3d is right I don't know were you are getting the idea about not having many full scoursers going to games anymore, most voices I hear at the games are scousers.

Im an "out of town fan", even though my mums family roots come from Liverpool, way back when. We dont live anywhere near the city but were just as passionate a the rest.
I think out of town fans and foreign fans are hugely important it shows the club has pulling power and a healthy fan base, but I still think its important that the club remains as connected to the people of Liverpool as possible.

At the end of the day if a person is willing to support Liverpool through thick and thin like we all are then who cares where their from.

Very sensible post and i agree 100%