David Prentice: SOS warning which all Liverpool FC fans should heed

05 March 2010 00:00
SOS warning which all Liverpool fans should heed[LNB]DEBT. Lies. Cowboys. Whichever statement you analyse, The Spirit of Shankly posters which have sprung up around town this week ring uncomfortably true.[LNB]Cowboys? Well it was Texan Tom Hicks himself who proudly showed off his club crested cowboy boots.[LNB]Lies? It was pardner George who suggested: 'We intend to have a shovel in the ground in 60 days' or claimed 'This is not a takeover like the Glazer deal at Manchester United. There is no debt involved.'[LNB]Then there's the biggest four letter word of the lot. Debt.[LNB]Liverpool are in alarming hock.[LNB]An official UEFA report published this week, The European Club Footballing Landscape, revealed that Premier League clubs owed more than the rest of Europe put together - and Liverpool and Manchester United make up more than 50 per cent of that debt.[LNB]That's a serious, club breaking, Leeds United style debt mountain.[LNB]The Spirit of Shankly group is sometimes accused of being zealous, old-style Militants who'd start a fight in an empty room.[LNB]But their poster campaign is not just well intentioned, it's justified, because it highlights a very real threat to the future well-being of Liverpool Football Club. And it's time everyone took heed.[LNB]In 2004, 2005 and 2006 Liverpool's end of year accounts showed debts of £14m, £15m and £26m.[LNB]In the first accounts posted after the American takeover, those debts instantly rocketed into 'Oh my God' territory. In 2007 Liverpool Football Club and parent company Kop Holdings owed £288m.[LNB]In 2008 it soared £385m into the red.[LNB]That startling figure reminded me of a conversation I'd had with that outstanding Anfield administrator Peter Robinson in what seemed like a quainter era, way back in 1988.[LNB]After a fixture foul-up left the Reds without a home game for a month, he told me: 'We've had to approach our bank for an overdraft for the first time I can remember. It's left us with cash flow problems and we're in the red.'[LNB]That was an era when Liverpool's financial results were of no real interest.

Source: Liverpool_Echo