Source: FOOTYMAD
Liverpool FC's £20million losses
The final cost of Tom Hicks and George Gillett's reign revealed in accounts Liverpool FC turned in a pre tax loss of £20m last year, the club’s latest set of accounts reveal today. The Anfield accounts, which cover the period August 2009 to July 2010 and relate entirely to the last full financial year of ownership under ousted Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett, also saw interest payments rising by nearly £5m annually. They went up from almost £13m in 2009 to £17.7m in 2010. The accounts, obtained exclusively by the ECHO, also reveal that the cost of parting company last summer with ex manager Rafael Benitez and his immediate staff approached £8m. Liverpool’s accounts, lodged with Companies House last week and due to be published soon, entirely pre-date the buy-out of the club by New England Sports Ventures, since renamed the Fenway Sports Group. That takeover, which followed a dramatic series of London High Court hearings in October last year, saw the group led by Boston Red Sox baseball team owners John Henry and Tom Werner reduce annual interest payments to around £3m a year. FSG have repaid £200m worth of acquisition debt which Hicks and Gillett had saddled the Reds with – sparking outrage at the time and a fans campaign to drive them out. Supporters accused Hicks and Gillett of breaking their promises and crippling the club with massive annual interest payments on the loans they took out to buy it in February 2007. The figures in essence reflect the final period of ownership under Hicks and Gillett – and were described today by current LFC managing Director Ian Ayre as ‘a footnote in our history’. Full story
