Hick: universe of buyers for Liverpool

LIVERPOOL co-owner Tom Hicks claims there is a large number of “interested buyers” in the club he and George Gillett put up for sale last month.

Having leveraged huge debt on the club – parent company Kop Holdings’ were £351million in the red last summer with annual loan repayments of £40m – the Americans decided to end their tumultuous reign at Anfield.

Liverpool are up for sale with an asking price of between £600m to £800m.

Those figures have hardly had investors knocking down the door of chairman Martin Broughton, who was appointed to oversee the process.

However, Hicks, who on Wednesday suggested it could take between 12 and 18 months to sell the club, still believes there are plenty of candidates to take over.

“Liverpool has a really big universe of interested buyers,” said the Texan.

“There are a number of wealthy people all over the world, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, who are enormous Liverpool fans.”

The 64-year-old admits he has had enough of owning clubs and sports franchises and is trying now to sell all his interests.

His Texas Rangers baseball side filed for bankruptcy on Monday some 13 months after its parent, HSG Sports Group, defaulted on £360m of debt.

The Dallas Stars ice hockey franchise is also being sold. Liverpool will be the last of his three main sports investments to be offloaded.

And Hicks, who has been the target of a sustained and often vitriolic fans’ campaign to sell up at Anfield, admits the high-profile nature of ownership had taken its toll.

“Sports has never been my primary business,” Hicks said.

“We are systematically selling our sports assets to focus on our core businesses like private equity and real estate.

“The lack of privacy in sports is something that my family and I aren’t willing to undertake any longer.

“We’ll always be big fans but we want our privacy back.”

Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish insists the club will not go backwards despite their current ownership issues and speculation about the futures of manager Rafael Benitez and star players Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.

Torres did little to quell continuing speculation when he side-stepped questions about his future.

However, Dalglish said the club was bigger than any individual.

“Liverpool FC is much more important than any one individual – it always has been and always will be,” said the Reds former player and manager who now has an ambassadorial role with the club’s academy.

“It will move forwards and move upwards.

“It is not the greatest time in the club’s history at this time but I don’t think they will start to go backwards.”