Liverpool fans make their point over new stadium

Apr 22 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

Image of Liverpool FC's new £300m planned stadium at Stanley Park _400

DISGRUNTLED LFC fans held an impromptu protest last night in the latest bid to force out the club’s American co-owners.

Ahead of the club’s Champion’s League semi-final against Chelsea at Anfield tonight, members of the group Sons of Shankly set up a site in Stanley Park to start the work on the new stadium that George Gillett and Tom Hicks said would start within 60 days when they first took over the club.

According to Sons of Shankly, that was 440 days ago.

Chair Neil Atkinson said: “We want to emphasise to people that there’s a vast chasm between what Gillett and Hicks say and the reality that turns out to be.

“Hicks initially said that a spade would be in the ground within 60 days of him getting in. It’s now 440 days, and so we’ve come down to help them out.”

Amid loud chants of “Yanks out”, dozens of supporters, who had been rallied earlier in the day via a supporters internet messageboard, posed with huge banners and spades as they “broke ground” on their dig-in. Mr Atkinson added: “You have got to question Gillett and Hicks’s commitment to LFC. They seem to be in it for the money.

“Hicks told us that he was not in negotiations with other managers, not in negotiations with DIC, that he hadn’t fallen out with Gillett – and you can’t trust a single thing he says.

“I would love to see them both go and have a clean sweep of the boardroom.

“We haven’t got a position on moving the new stadium. It is about pointing out in a humor- ous manner that we think what has gone on is unacceptable.

Spokesperson and community development officer for the group Jay McKenna said: “Any aspect Tom Hicks has promised, like how they wouldn’t bring any debt to the club, and there would be a spade in the ground in 60 days – 440 days later, there’s no spade in the ground, so we have come here today to do it.

“He seems not to understand what the club is about and we don’t want him here. He has failed to deliver, and actions speak louder than words.”

vickyanderson