And after his run-out last night, Reds boss Rafa Benitez said he was looking forward to having a fully-focused Steven Gerrard back for the upcoming campaign.

Rafa was told of the jury’s decision as he took a training session in the national stadium of Singapore.

He said: “We are really pleased. He is very important for us and he can now focus just on football.

“We are all pleased at the club and over here at the training camp.

“We have been supporting him all the time and were just waiting for the decision. Now he can concentrate just on football and hopefully play at the same level as last year.”

Richard Green, head of sports at city law firm Hill Dickinson, represented Steven Gerrard from the day of his arrest.

He told the ECHO: “There is not a question of doubt that the jury reached the right decision.

“I'm delighted that they took on board all of the evidence, which they heard during the five-day trial and took such a short period of time to come back and find my client innocent.”

Steven Gerrard was a pupil at West Derby’s Cardinal Heenan Catholic Sports College where he excelled at sport and achieved five GCSEs.

Today his former headteacher, Dave Forshaw, said: “We are very pleased it has turned out all right for him.

“At school he was never in any trouble, a quiet lad who liked his sports.

“It is good he can now just concentrate on his football and put this all behind him.”

After the case, Merseyside police declined to comment.

But Nicola Davies, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS Merseyside, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it was in the public interest to proceed with this trial.

“The jury heard both the prosecution and defence case and reached today’s verdict of not guilty and we fully respect their decision.”