ON the day when the country woke up to a hung parliament, Liverpool supporters were given further evidence of why their club remains in such agonising limbo.

The extent of Rafael Benitez’s difficulties in terms of rebuilding his squad next season were laid bare by the publication of the club’s financial accounts.

Although the figures are only dated to July 31 last year, they showed the club itself made an operating loss before tax of £16m, down from a £10.2m profit the previous year.

Kop Holdings, the company set up by co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to buy Liverpool in 2007, continued to run up more debt as annual interest repayments on loans taken out to finance the purchase rose by £3.6m to £40.1m.

That resulted in the group making a loss before tax of £54.9m, an increase of £14m from 2008, which in turn contributed to Kop Holdings’ debt rising from £299.8m in 2008 to £351.4m last year.

The mood among Liverpool’s fans will hardly have been lifted by the startling revelation former chief executive Rick Parry received a total £4.295m pay-off when he left last summer, a sum apparently negotiated with previous chairman David Moores around the time current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett entered the bidding to buy Liverpool back in 2007.

It is understood to be one of the biggest pay-offs to a sports administrator, dwarfing the £1.2m Brian Barwick received when he left his post as Football Association chief executive in December 2008 and Keith Edelman’s £1.5m deal from Arsenal in the same year.

Not the news Benitez would have wanted to discover when he held his delayed first meeting with new chairman Martin Broughton on Thursday.

The Spaniard is keen for assurances over the future direction of the club, and the figures released yesterday indicate it will almost certainly require a complete takeover to provide the fresh investment he believes is required to make Liverpool competitive.