Dubai International to make bid for Liverpool FC

[blacky]

I would like to make a point about DIC because some people may think that DIC will offer more of the same in terms of viewing our club as a cash cow. This is not earth shattering info to our fans in the middle east but may prove to be a useful insight to the rest of us. Bear with me.

My neighbour across the road is an Engineering Project Manager in Dubai. He effectively works for a part of DIC responsible for their big building projects. He works away most of the year but his wife and child stay here in the uk. He comes back for a few days every couple of months. He doesn't really like football but knows I am a Liverpool man. I spoke to him after the last DIC deal fell through and he was astonished that Liverpool didn't go with them. Until this time I wasn't aware that he had anything to do with DIC even though he lives in dubai.

He told me that he wasn't really privy to any hard info but explained the whole ethos of Dubai in general. He said the whole idea of dubai by the sheihk is a recognition that in the medium to long term the oil is running out and he wants to move his emmirate towards tourism/leisure etc.

He said that DIC is an organisation that wants a portfolio of high profile businesses whose aim is to basically advertise the merits of Dubai to the rest of the world and attract tourists and foreign money to the region. Although the projects are all hoped to be successful businesses- income generation from those businesses is not their primary function. He told me that it was DIC's intention to use LFC as a world wide brand to attract positive spin towards Dubai. This would involve pumping loads of money into the club to make it top dog.

He had no knowledge of the 7 year plan and said this wasn't really their way of doing things.

I spoke to him at xmas before the latest rumours and he didn't mention anything new but as I said before I don't think he would really know anything about that part of the business. I plan to ask him again when he returns in a few weeks.

Ed

Cheers lad.

[Jan-Erik]

If the re-financing deal doesnt include money for the new stadium, then what about the security of the loan deal? Will this make it more difficult for the yanks to get a deal? I thought the future income from a bigger stadium was a big factor in all this.

[blacky]

Written by Jon Champion

on Friday, 18 January 2008

For all the lip service Gillett and Hicks have paid to the tradition and heritage of Liverpool Football Club, I remain to be convinced that they really understand what they have bought into, what that club means to the city and to English football.

They certainly don’t strike me as people that have actually realised what they have got involved in. I guess that is always the problem when hard-headed businessmen get involved with something that involves emotion and that is precisely what we are seeing at the moment.

I think these guys are fairly ruthless, and they say you have to be ruthless to run a Premier League club these days with all the money that is involved, but I wouldn’t have thought they will be swayed particularly by shows of support by fans or players, they will make their own decisions if there are hundreds of millions of pounds, or in their case dollars, riding on the success or otherwise of this venture that they have got into, and I don’t think they will stand around on sentiment, they will just act if they feel they need to.

I would be very surprised if Benitez didn’t see the season out, there is no point, even if they decide they want to get rid of him, making the decision now whilst they are still in with a chance of beating Inter in the Champions League this season and being in the FA Cup, but all bets are off for next season really.

Benitez’s future is not great in the long term I would have said, there are echoes of the situation at Tottenham earlier in the season when, from the boardroom, Martin Jol found his position undermined. It is so unusual for Liverpool to go and wash their dirty linen in public, I think it is indicate of the change of ownership. I think in a sense, in our featured match on Setanta Sports on Monday night against Aston Villa, you have got two clubs in American ownership, one whose owner you have barely heard from – Randy Lerner at Aston Villa – who certainly from the conversations that I have had with him in boardrooms after matches, has got the best interests of Aston Villa at heart and is content to be in the background most of the time.

Then you have these two Americans who appear to be fighting amongst themselves over the best way forward for Liverpool, they have also gone in there, raised a lot of money very quickly to buy the club, are now having to refinance and it seems at least one of the two has overstretched himself. So I think in a sense, you have this contrast between the good, positive face of foreign ownership and what can happen to your club if other people come along.

For a man that retains PR consultants it was an extraordinary statement from Tom Hicks. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here but I think he was just naïve in what he believed that in saying what he did it would put a stop to the questioning of Benitez’s position, especially because Klinsmann has got a job elsewhere with Bayern Munich. But in fact it has had precisely the opposite effect, and I think you could have gone to any Liverpool fan on The Kop and said ‘Look, this is what happened and this is what I intend to say publicly’, and they would have taken that as a negative for Benitez rather than the positive that Hicks seemed to believe it would be seen as.

[enema of the state]

So you think that an intelligent millionaire businessman who spent years in sports franchises didn't think that what he said about Klinsmann would undermine Rafa and it just slipped out?

ever heard of gerald ratner mate??

even the cleverest and most successful of business people can make gaffs

No one is saying DIC will be the new Messiah

maybe youre not - but there are people whose view is pretty ****in close

but the devil himself would be better than Hicks

i dont think so - there are worse owners than hicks we could get

of course they are in it to make money so are most club buyers and the nice thing about that is they have the money to invest in the playing staff to increase the marketing revenues that would hopefully follow success on the pitch and at least they are lead by a fan

fair point - an im not against DIC per se - im just equally realistic about what they are and how things will be for the club with them as owners

How do you compare the two? If there's a next time with different players you might find it's the other way around

maybe so...the gulf arabs (also from dubai) i worked with had impeccable manners but thought they were lords and gods of all they surveyed. no matter how key you were to their organisation, you were nothing more than a shoeshiner in their eyes - thats exactly the kind of attitude (towards rafa) that has caused hicks to alienate the majority of lfc fans. I just think a little more open mindedness is needed before we get the begging banners out for them to come and "save" us

[Snigger]

no but many of the people chanting against H&G A) arent well informed B) havent given it too muchh thought C) are just doing it because some loudmouths nearby started shouting it. "sheep"s a pretty good term for those people

On the other hand they may object to the way the owners are undermining the manager by openly approaching another, refinancing all the debt on to the club which they said they wouldn't, refusing to discuss the transfer window with the manager, promising a state of the art stadium and not being able to follow through with it. They are clowns and I don't want them anywhere near our club.

[enema of the state]

On the other hand they may object to the way the owners are undermining the manager by openly approaching another.

a very legitimate grievance

refinancing all the debt on to the club which they said they wouldn't,.

really, this has happened has it??

refusing to discuss the transfer window with the manager,.

proof of the pudding is in the eating....lets see if we tie up the mascherano deal too...I think the yanks have improved out transfer activity compared with the previous regime. i dont give a **** if they would give rafa carte blanche until later than he wished - i wish the related dirty linen hadnt been aired publically but in that case it was rafa who was responsible for things kicking off

promising a state of the art stadium and not being able to follow through with it. .

really, this has happened has it??

They are clowns and I don't want them anywhere near our club.

thats your considered opinion - and you are welcome to it. i dont believe many of the (minority) chanting against the yanks have given it sufficient consideration

[Snigger]

a very legitimate grievance



really, this has happened has it??






proof of the pudding is in the eating....lets see if we tie up the mascherano deal too...I think the yanks have improved out transfer activity compared with the previous regime. i dont give a **** if they would give rafa carte blanche until later than he wished - i wish the related dirty linen hadnt been aired publically but in that case it was rafa who was responsible for things kicking off



really, this has happened has it??



thats your considered opinion - and you are welcome to it. i dont believe many of the (minority) chanting against the yanks have given it sufficient consideration

The refininancing is definitely being hammered out, I know that for a fact and my considered opinion seems to be shared with at least 95% of Liverpool fans I have spoken to or read on the various LFC forums. The stadium has not happened yet but it is common knowledge they are looking at the previous option now.

You are entitled to your opinion too and you may disgree, we will just have to wait and see.

[paulcooper4]

seemed to be a minority at the luton game



id say this term fits people with a tendency to blurt out something crude and aggressive before theyve got very much information or given an issue very much thought.......know anybodywho might be an example of such an individual???



ive been called worse things...and there were a few more than just me mate



no but many of the people chanting against H&G A) arent well informed B) havent given it too muchh thought C) are just doing it because some loudmouths nearby started shouting it. "sheep"s a pretty good term for those people

or D) because they are disgusted at the way the club is being ran?

[enema of the state]

we will just have to wait and see.

we will

[Tom]

1. It's not a minority

2. Where's the money coming from if the debt isn't being put on the club. Not from the 2 owners that's for sure.

3. The money for the new centre back is essentially the heinze money, i.e. part of the original loan. They haven't spent a cent.

4. Baaaaaa.

[Rafa Shankly]

@enema of the state

whats your problem with people being concerned about the future of the club?

[enema of the state]

@enema of the state

whats your problem with people being concerned about the future of the club?

none whatsoever

i dont accept the interpretaion being presented by tom/archie etc...however i respect their opinions, theyve thought about it and quoted the "evidence". i interpret the public domain facts differently as ive tried to explain. i think stirring up people wholl never give it adequate consideration - and just jump to an extreme opinion is usually a harmful thing to do.

[enema of the state]

if thats what you truly believe, go for your life - i dont

[Snigger]

if thats what you truly believe, go for your life - i dont

So you think they will fund the share purchase and the new stadium from their own pockets?

[Dhav]

After the way these cunts have acted, I don't understand how any fan can give them the benefit of the doubt or defend them