Liverpool tells fans: Dig deep to buy club

LIVERPOOL fans in Ireland are being urged to dig deep and make the historic, but troubled, club a “vehicle not for making money, but for making glory”.

The call was made at the launch in Dublin yesterday of the Irish wing of Share Liverpool FC, attended by former Irish international John Aldridge.

The group wants fans to raise £500 million to buy out the club by enlisting 100,000 of them to buy a “member’s share” at a cost of €6,400, each.

Speaking at the launch, board member Aldridge said it hurt him “deep down” to see what was happening to the club at the hands of owners, US tycoons George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

Share Liverpool FC founder Rogan Taylor said there had been a “marriage and divorce” of the businessmen within six months of taking control in February 2007.

“Rafa (Benitez, the manager) has no money to spend, the two owners don’t talk to each other, one is calling for the sack of the chief executive, the other is kind of supporting him,” he said.

Mr Taylor said the club was £350m in debt and that the two owners had only put £7m into the club. He called on Liverpool fans to join together — as they had done in other famous clubs, like Barcelona — and buy out the owners.

This would ensure Liverpool FC was “not a vehicle for making money, but for making glory”.

He said 38,000 fans had registered their interest on the group’s website out of an estimated 20 million Liverpool fans worldwide.

Share Liverpool FC national coordinator in Ireland Bernard O’Byrne, the former FAI boss, said 3,500 of those who accessed the website were Irish.

He did not have a target of how many Irish fans he hoped to get on board but wanted to make sure they were all aware of the project and was thinking of setting up roadshows to go around the country.

Other Liverpool greats supporting the effort are former Irish internationals Ronnie Whelan and Jason McAteer and former English internationals John Barnes and Phil Thompson.

Mr Taylor recognised €6,400 was a lot of money, but said a group of people could club together for the share.

He said they would not be asking for cheques until the group was in a position to put a bid in for ownership.

For more info visit the website www.shareliverpoolfc.com or contact Bernard O’Byrne at [e-mail].