Business Editor Bill Gleeson believes Liverpool will stay at Anfield

THE fact Liverpool FC’s owners still have no plans to press ahead with the Stanley Park stadium is no surprise.

Last August, the club said it was delaying the start of construction work for one year.

Listening to Tom Hicks yesterday, it appears that this estimate was optimistic. The delay was blamed on the credit crunch, which, if anything, has deepened since last summer. Certainly, there are no signs yet that conditions in financial markets are easing.

Indeed, Liverpool fans should give up any hope of a new ground for the foreseeable future because, even once the worst of the credit crunch has passed, banks won’t be returning to their former practice of handing out cash willy- nilly. Bankers’ badly burnt fingers will remain tender for many years to come.

Mr Hicks’s debt-based private equity business model may well become obsolete and, as a result, the window of opportunity to build new stadiums is now shut for good.

It’s nothing personal. It will affect every type of private equity business in the world, whether they are football clubs, shops or car makers.

If a football club goes bust, what would the bank do with the ground?

It’s not just a problem for Liverpool. Manchester United (albeit with a great stadium in place) and Aston Villa, both owned by Americans, face the same problem.