Here’s the rough breakdown of the figures… no black holes…no conspuracies… the first thing that needs to realised is that LFC were just about breaking even the last few years under Moores so forget the CL prizemoney… that just went into the general pot as it were.

Next we take the £298m borrowed… £174m was paid for the shares… just under £50m was paid toward old debt incl personal loans made by Moores… £21m (minimum and taking this writers figures for transfers) was paid for net transfers last summer incl Torres… £12m was paid on initial loan negotiation fees, legal, consultancy and other expenses incurred when the club changed hands and c£22m has been earmarked to service this loan in the first year… this leaves a residual of (say) £20m which Benitez will now doubt spend this transfer window mainly on Mascherano.

Next we take the new £350m loan… the old £298m loan is obviously extinguished and £60m has been earmarked for initial stadium expenditure… this in actual fact leaves a cash deficit which will be made up by the end of the season no doubt by the extra £20m that LFC can expect to recieve from the new PL tv deal… and next year LFC will need to worry about £26m pa interest (@ say 7.5%) on the £350m new loan plus negotiation and facility fees etc…

As has been pointed out another £300m minimum will be needed to finish the stadiumtaking total interest to c£50m pa by 2010…

They will sell to DIC when they think the price is right, and Liverpool FC with a new stadium under construction is worth a lot more than without.

So, the PR nonsense will continue until they can artificially inflate the value of the club. They want the debt set against the club so they can be rid of it when they sell.

I think you call it ‘a nice little earner’ and if they get it right they will each make £100m in a year or so.

We must have an action plan. This involves immediate cessation of all financial support of any kind to the club (while Hicks remains in control of it) for as long as it takes to force him out. Those who can still cancel tickets etc should do so asap and no further monies should be paid of any kind. This must be allied to loud, public and ongoing protests outside the ground which even Hicks cannot simply cannot ignore. Again this must continue for as long as it takes.

Hicks promised us (and David Moores) that the huge loans he used to buy the club would not be transferred onto the club but this is effectively exactly what he has done because neither Hicks nor Gillett has added a penny of his own money. They both expect the club to fund the crippling interest payments of over £30 million per annum on the full £350 million debt. The sums simply do not add up. Fans should read the article by Nick Harris in the Independant for 26 January 2008.

Fans should also remember that the new £350 million debt only covers initial construction costs for the stadium so Hicks’ plans necessitate lots of further borrowing. The vast majority of the existing £350 million debt is merely to refinance Hicks and Gillett’s intial borrowings to buy the club. It is adding no value whatsoever to the club which means the club is much, much worse off than if it had simply borrowed the money itself to fund the new construction like Arsenal did. All Hicks and Gillett have added to the new stadium project is huge and unmanageable amounts of debt and delay. The maintenance of those debts will surely cripple any attempt by us to remain competitive on the field. There is not a single businessman anywhere who can understand what possible benefit Hicks has brought to the club. Even RBS thinks think his scheme will likely fail in the long term.

The signing of Mascherano should not fool anyone. This is just more evidence that Hicks thinks we are all mindless morons who can be controlled by cheap propaganda. He is counting on enough of us simply putting up with his rule and going with the flow. He is counting on us not having enough balls to really unite against him. Unfortunately we don’t have time to wait for things to develop as they inevitabley will. The choice is simple. Do we unite now to force out Hicks or just let the club go the same way as Leeds ??

Yesterday was a day that will go down in infamy in the history of Liverpool Football Club. Yesterday was the day that the stewardship of our beloved club by two most undesirable proprietors was sealed. Yesterday was the day that Liverpool Football Club lost its soul.

I have stood and sat in the Kop for fifty years, through its greatest, its humblest (some on here may not realise we were in the old second division within the living memory of most Liverpool supporters) and most tragic times. I have witnessed all our major triumphs and all our humbling defeats. But now no more. This, my fellow Reds, is the end of the line for me.

Unlike many of those who resisted the takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family I am not set against Americans per se owning our club. It is these particular Americans that I am opposed to for obvious reasons (it was educational to hear that former Chairman of Aston Villa, Doug Ellis, was prepared to accept a lower offer for his shares from Randy Lerner rather than allow Gillett gain control of the club). And make no mistake HICKS &GILLETT are in this now for the long haul – no matter how many REDS are left sleeping on bare mattresses!

What we are witnessing now is the birth of a commercial sports franchise the hub of whose operations will just happen to be within the City of Liverpool. It will be about as Scouse as any Merseyside branch of Tesco or Sainsbury. And worse still, as we have already become aware, our new and most unwelcome owners will do this in a way so underhanded that it would make MI6 blush.

But I haven’t ventured on to Liverpool fan websites for the first time in my life simply to deliver an ‘I Quit’ ultimatum. I have come here to say that ANY Liverpool fan that continues to go to matches is propping up the current regime. Boycotting the odd match here or there will not make the individual fan any less of a collaborator. S/he has to be ready to abstain from match attendance for the duration.

Unfortunately, the outlook for this kind of protest, at first sight, is not encouraging. Barely 300 people failed to renew their season tickets at Old Trafford after the Glazers took over. And those who stayed but decided to boycott club merchandise (and hypocritically vandalise the property of Manchester United executives) couldn’t prevent the clubs turnover reaching a record £250m last year (NB the 76% here who stated they would reduce their financial commitment to LFC should H&G remain).

The formation of an opposition football club on the other hand appears slightly more promising. Playing well outside Manchester at Bury’s Gigg Lane ground, FC United of Manchester regularly commands gates in excess of 3,000. More importantly, the dissidents are not only sticking with their new creation – they are growing in number.

There is much we can learn from the experience of Man U fans who opposed the Glazer takeover. I believe that we could make a sustained boycott of Liverpool FC much more effective and that a new club venture could be more successful. I believe this because Liverpool is a more tightly knit community with a more distinct identity with a greater appetite for struggle.

Fellow Reds, we are now at a crossroads. Either we can just talk of contempt for Gillette and Hicks while continuing to aid them in their monstrous scheme by passing through the turnstiles or we can sever our ties with their alien creation and reclaim our heritage by forming a new club: ‘Liverpool 2008 FC.’

I call upon the moderators, administrators and members of this forum, with links to the official and unofficial Liverpool Supporters Clubs and Associations to lobby your committees and officers to convene within a month an open meeting in a local public venue to discuss the topics that I have just raised: namely the launch of a long term boycott of ALL Liverpool FC fixtures and the establishment of a new association football club, ‘Liverpool 2008 FC.’

I hereby authorise all those who sympathise with the opinions expressed herein to reproduce them for a wider audience.

This report is true and excellent and I can only imagine that Messrs Parry and Moores are holding their heads in shame.

Imagine next season loads of debt – no Rafa, no Stevie G and no Torres……. and no champions League.

Many poeple make great comments but there is no leader. Surely there are a group of ex-players who could orchestrate the campaign against these two.

Also, look what Liverpool has done to the Sun – why not close all accounts with RBS and NatWest. That way they might not be so keen to stay involved.

top notch article

I ask – as now they’ve revised their old plans will they need to seek new planning permission?

If so, then maybe we need to mobilise people affected by the new stadium to kick-up a huge fuss and make the Council refuse the stadium plans.

That will make Hicks and Gillett re-think their involvement.

What do you think?

Hicks was one of the chief backers of George Bush’s rise to power in Texas and there are obvious similarities between them. Much like Bush the aptly named Hicks wants to create his own little reality. He is too dumb and ignorant to understand that (just as the insurgents in Iraq will not tolerate being ruled by Bush) so we LFC fans will not tolerate being ruled by Hicks. We will make our business to make it impossible for him to profit through the Club.

Lets face it George Gillett is just a doormat for Hicks and Hicks is just a yank hustler who only comes out when he smells a profit. Hicks thinks LFC is a potential cash cow that can be sucked dry over time because of the fans’ devotion to the club. He is already on record as saying (in America) that in order to make money from LFC winning will not be necessary because brand devotion is all that really matters. None of Hicks’s American sports teams have done even remotely well under his ownership and this should have LFC fans seriously concerned. His whole belief system runs directly contrary to that of every Liverpool fan.

I for one pray thtat DIC can come up with an offer that the greedy bast*rds will accept. The next step is getting rid of Rick Parry, the little rat that he is! Between him and Moores, they have destroyed LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB!!!
thats what it’s all about yankeedoodledandies, the CLUB, not profit, not looking good at the golf club “hey guys, i hear you bought a soccerball team, good on ya”, it’s about the heritage and history (not to mention the future) of OUR club!

COME AND SAVE US DIC! GET RID OF THIS SHOWER WHO FOR SOME REASON WERE ALLOWED INTO OUR CLUB.

“THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT RAFA, THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT FANS, LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB, IS IN THE WRONG HANDS!!!!”