OUR revelation that top-level talks are due to take place later today about the future stadium plans of the city’s two great football teams is welcome news.

After a black Friday which saw Portsmouth go into administration, and Chester City voted out of the Football Conference, the spotlight is firmly on the crazy state of football finances.

Liverpool FC remains committed to building a £400m, 60,000-seater new stadium, but, given the massive debts the club faces, the long-rumoured massive cash injection from a foreign consortium must surely be a prerequisite for this badly-needed development to go ahead.

Everton’s need for a move is even more acute, given the current state of Goodison Park, but, with the Kirkby project and the free land and Tesco construction money that came with it now gone, it is difficult to see how the club can move forward with any kind of plan, again barring significant financial help coming in.

We are pleased, therefore, that Liverpool chief executive Christian Purslow and his Everton counterpart Robert Elstone are getting round a table with the Northwest Development Agency and city leaders to discuss the problems.

Whatever your football allegiances, there is a bigger picture here. The regeneration plans of a large area of north Liverpool have been badly stalled for years, thanks to the repercussions of the clubs’ stadium development difficulties.

Nobody would seriously expect a magic solution to these problems to emerge from today’s talks, but the fact that they are talking to each other at all is a source of some encouragement.