By Oliver Kay
Tuesday November 06 2007
WITH the club's owners mulling over a €1bn refinancing plan, Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez goes into tonight's Champions League clash with Besiktas knowing that money talks, although he is trying to avoid listening.
Since the club was bought by George Gillett and Tom Hicks just nine months ago, the construction cost of the proposed new stadium in Stanley Park has risen from €330m to more than €575m, prompting the Americans to contemplate a €1,000,000,000 refinancing plan that would take the club €718m into debt.
With plans for the revised stadium design due to be submitted to Liverpool City Council today, Benitez could hardly fail to be aware of the figures, but he feels that the pressure they bring on the football side of the club has been overstated.
"When you talk about a £400m (€575m) stadium and the amount you get for reaching the final (as opposed to the group stage), then an extra £10m (€14m) is not a big difference," he said. "How many teams have been in the Champions League final twice in three seasons? And what does that mean in terms of money? Of course, the owners want the money, but is there a big difference between £400m (€575m)and £410m (€590m)?"
Not when analysed in such crude terms, perhaps, but even a €14m shortfall would be bad news for Liverpool at a time when Gillett and Hicks are faced with a €31m annual interest bill on the €428m Royal Bank of Scotland loan with which they bought the club last February.
Nine months on, the proposed refinancing deal is likely to mean higher interest payments -- and, if the anticipated Champions League revenue did not materialise, the expectation within Anfield is that the shortfall would have to be met by selling players at a time when Benitez, still short of at least two top-class performers, would like to be investing in new talent.
- Oliver Kay
Tuesday November 06 2007
WITH the club's owners mulling over a €1bn refinancing plan, Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez goes into tonight's Champions League clash with Besiktas knowing that money talks, although he is trying to avoid listening.
Since the club was bought by George Gillett and Tom Hicks just nine months ago, the construction cost of the proposed new stadium in Stanley Park has risen from €330m to more than €575m, prompting the Americans to contemplate a €1,000,000,000 refinancing plan that would take the club €718m into debt.
With plans for the revised stadium design due to be submitted to Liverpool City Council today, Benitez could hardly fail to be aware of the figures, but he feels that the pressure they bring on the football side of the club has been overstated.
"When you talk about a £400m (€575m) stadium and the amount you get for reaching the final (as opposed to the group stage), then an extra £10m (€14m) is not a big difference," he said. "How many teams have been in the Champions League final twice in three seasons? And what does that mean in terms of money? Of course, the owners want the money, but is there a big difference between £400m (€575m)and £410m (€590m)?"
Not when analysed in such crude terms, perhaps, but even a €14m shortfall would be bad news for Liverpool at a time when Gillett and Hicks are faced with a €31m annual interest bill on the €428m Royal Bank of Scotland loan with which they bought the club last February.
Nine months on, the proposed refinancing deal is likely to mean higher interest payments -- and, if the anticipated Champions League revenue did not materialise, the expectation within Anfield is that the shortfall would have to be met by selling players at a time when Benitez, still short of at least two top-class performers, would like to be investing in new talent.
- Oliver Kay
You would.
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