Parry looks to a bright LFC future

Feb 12 2007 By Liam Murphy

LIVERPOOL Football Club’s chief executive, Rick Parry, yesterday admitted the search for an investor had been a major source of “distraction” for the club over the past few years.

Mr Parry, who flies to America this week to see how Liverpool’s new owners operate their assets in the USA and Canada, was speaking after Liverpool concluded the takeover deal with American tycoons George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

The tycoons beat off competition from Dubai International Capital and are believed to have guaranteed to invest more than £200m in the club.

The club’s chief executive said the conclusion of the deal was a “huge relief” and revealed that work on the new stadium at Stanley Park would be the first tangible signs of their financial muscle and expertise. Mr Parry said the search for a credible investor had been “distracting and a bit debilitating” for the club.

He said: “It is difficult to focus on the long-term plan when the whole issue of ownership and future direction is uncertain, so it is a huge relief.”

It also emerged over the weekend that the club’s outgoing chairman, David Moores, had only found out the deal with DIC had fallen through from watching the news.

Colin Gillespie, a corporate finance partner at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers and the man charged with overseeing the takeover process, described how the decision between which billionaires should be chosen was taken out of David Moores’ hands after DIC’s ultimatum.

DIC, owned by the rulers of Dubai, had been favourites to take over until the Americans came in with a late bid.

He said: “At 9.45 in the morning they’d said 12 hours, but at noon they said it was all going to be over between 5 and 6pm.