A takeover of Liverpool football club seems increasingly likely after the club and a number of prospective buyers alerted the Premier League to a potential change in ownership.
After the financial crisis that engulfed Portsmouth last season, the Premier League introduced stricter regulations regarding club ownership, which means that all prospective owners must give the Premier League 10 days’ notice of a takeover and meet with league chiefs face-to-face to prove they have the funds to sustain the club.
It is understood that a number of prospective owners of Liverpool Football Club – including Chinese businessman Kenneth Huang – have alerted the Premier League to the prospect of a potential takeover.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: “We believe we have the measures now in place, the early warning system that will reduce the risk of having a repeat of the Portsmouth situation.
“The objective of the Premier League is to reduce risk and try to prevent the worst happening but we can’t eliminate risk entirely as that would involve us interfering as shadow directors in the running of clubs. There was reputational damage with the situation we had with Portsmouth.â€
“Clubs get tired of football being called a financial basket case. There was an element of gross mismanagement [with Portsmouth] and people have understood it was the exception rather than the rule.”
New Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton recently announced that he hoped to have whittled down the interested parties to one potential bidder within the next ten days.
For five things you may not have known about potential Liverpool owner Kenneth Huang, click here.
