IN February 2007, Tom Hicks and George Gillett purchased Liverpool FC. It was a turbulent three-and-a-half years in the history of the club, and it also sparked the birth of Liverpool Supporters Union, Spirit of Shankly.
“An Epic Swindle” was how Hicks later described New England Sports Ventures (latterly Fenway Sports Group) wrestling control and ownership of the club from the pair. Attaining ownership of a world-famous sporting institution — loved by millions around the world — for such a knockdown price was indeed a bargain to Boston’s John W Henry et al.
However, if there was a “swindle” at all, it was an earlier theft — in 2007 — from Reds’ supporters, and the near loss of their beloved Liverpool, that was truly epic.
A leveraged buy-out of the football club, from the local ownership of David Moores, damaged Liverpool from day one.
Hicks and Gillett arrived offering Liverpudlians the earth. Grand stadium plans which never saw the light of day. A mirage of “a spade in the ground in 60 days” that never so much as pierced Anfield turf. Crass behaviour and in-fighting between the pair of them that made of mockery of Liverpool fans’ unique style and dignity.
A support — for those of us who lived through Hillsborough in April 1989 — that was still reeling from the cutting, profound effects of that awful day, never given a second thought.
It was all about the money. Never mind avaricious. They were just bloody greedy.
Broken promises from day one. Lie upon lie and mismanagement at every level. Cash from the club’s own profits — generated by the name, success and prestige of Liverpool FC — stripped away to pay their own “mortgage” on “their” asset.
Persecution of a team manager in Rafa Benitez who was loved by his people and fought and fought against them for two-and-a-half years before being forced to fall on his own sword.
Hicks and Gillett somehow managed, with the assistance of media asleep at the wheel, to turn the majority of Liverpool fans against Rafa Benitez.
On his departure, a gift of £96,000 of Hicks and Gillett’s severance was paid to the bereaved by Benitez. Ask the Hillsborough families what they think of Rafa.
Once again, thank you Rafa. You’re one of us.
On the pitch, despite a civil war inside the club; one which then pervaded the terraces and split the famous Kop down the middle, came a valiant, often heroic challenge for the League title in 2009.
They were the best of times. But my word, they were the worst of times.
Those of us who saw through the owners — our “custodians”; those of us who recognised their grand larceny, their own epic swindle, fought back. We fought hard and long.
We took to the streets. We marched, we protested, we sang our hearts out. Get out of our club. Liverpool Football Club is in the wrong hands.
Writing these words — of those impassioned chants which rang around Anfield — still chills the soul.
Thousands didn’t get it and just ignored us. While we stayed behind to air our voices, they went home. We exposed the unwanted squatters in our home while the rest shielded them unknowingly — but for far too long to give credence to their ignorance.
Fighting tooth and nail we went to war. We took sides and were on the right team.
God bless those who formed and joined Spirit of Shankly in February 2008. “Shankly Lives Forever,” a banner once read. His spirit does exactly that. That spirit gave us legs, heart, and oiled our vocal chords. It gave us the will to fight the good fight.
We fought and scrapped to the end. We won the day. Liverpool FC was saved and we saved the club, not FSG. We know this because we were there, and we fought every battle. Fenway now have the chance to consolidate and build on their asset, so it can thrive. It’s up you, John, Linda and co.
Spirit of Shankly was 10 years old a couple of weeks ago. Happy Anniversary, lads and lasses.
Hicks and Gillett are a dim, distant but painful memory. “At the end of a storm there’s a golden sky.”
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
I sometimes think the legacy of those days lingers on in the sense that some fans think it’s their right to try and bring down the owners whenever they don’t do as they want them to. For the record, even though I played no part in bringing down H&G (being in Chester, the truth is, we weren’t aware of the scale of the problem) I’m always immensely proud of the Liverpool fans and what they achieved.
FSG might not plough cash into the club but they don’t take it out either (until pay day but that’s not the same thing). They said from day one when they leave the club it’ll be self sustainable and it won’t matter who the owners are. Can the same be said for Chelsea and City? It’s clearly a project where the club grows by itself and unaided by it’s owners.
It just pisses me off that today I read this club can win the CL. We all know if City had done what happens most seasons and been pretty much within reach by the team in second then we’d be confident right now we would win the league. Ok, we won’t and possibly haven’t quite been good enough but we’re in a much better place this week than those days you write about. Not hard, I know, but the difference is huge. I’d agree it’s taken too long to get to this point and we’ve helped more by the tv money than the deals FSG have overseen but we’re getting there because the right decisions have been made. You may be unsure of Klopp but he’s the best hope we could have got. We seem to be buying the right players too. The club infrastructure is getting up to date and will continue to do so. The token gesture steering committee has been replaced by a fans group that may (or may not, as it’s too early to say) have a voice in the club. We all wanted Ayre gone and after being given a proper chance that’s happened.
Mistakes have been made, notably the ticket price rise, then rectified and the spending of the Suarez money (which was slightly unlucky in some ways. If I remember right, you were at (was it called) Leaf for Neil and Johns book release the day the news broke we were signing Mario. It didn’t feel like a disaster that night. Certainly a gamble and one that ultimately failed but not a disaster. The issue seems to be two fold primarily. Money for transfers and our best players leaving. Think back to the Torres final days. I’ve seen what he’s said since but it seemed to me we had little choice. Could we have kept Suarez? I think we did ok to keep him the extra season. Think of Sterlings treacherous interviews. Yes, the club have to take a share of the blame for him losing interest in us but we didn’t gleefully sell him for money. The same can be said for Coutinho. He simply wanted to go to Barca. I don’t believe any amount of success would have changed that. Regarding the transfers, we spent £215m this season including Keita. It wasn’t done on the premise Coutinho was going and I guarantee that money plus our budget will be available in the summer. I think we just have to realise Klopp is not a manager who feels he can only get success with a chequebook. I’m aware of some of the unnecessary things that have gone on with trademarks etc and I don’t agree with the club on it but overall…..
None of this is aimed at you, Mike, far from it. It’s aimed at our idiotic fans who even now are trying to derail the strides we’ve made. As far as I’m aware, Spirit of Shankly as a group are not in that category either even if some of it’s individual members clearly are. Truth be told, I don’t want to see FSG at our matches. They’re just dull people. I want to know we have a manager, sporting director and CEO who don’t need their hands held. I’m confident for our future. I don’t want some idiots hiring planes or planning marches and casting a black cloud over the club. We’re on the verge.
*apologies that this doesn’t necessarily relate to the article. I’m getting seriously pissed off with our fans although I doubt the ones in Porto are the same ones moaning on Twitter or football phone in’s. I just wonder has the great work done by the fans you mention in this article given a voice to fans who don’t understand when the right time is to use it.
“FSG might not plough cash into the club but they don’t take it out either (until pay day but that’s not the same thing”….er, yes, it is.
er, no it’s not. What money will leave the club when they sell? Enlighten me. Do you think they empty the banks, sell all the players and sell the stadium, lol. It’s just sold as a going concern.
Because “plowing cash into the club” would reduce the return on sale. Reduce their profits. By taking a profit every season or taking all the profits at sale its still profit. The only difference being when the profit is realized. Hence it being the “same thing”. Profits are profits.
In terms of a football club, a profit on the asset is not the same as the clubs profits. They’re 2 different entities.
So – how much money does levy, Glazer, Abramovich (in the last 3-4 years), Kroenke plough into their clubs? Sweet sum of fuck all is the answer.
And lets be clear, just with the increase in TV money if it becomes clear the owner is self financing with extra cash then fees go up – its a zero sum gain.
meant Lewis at Spurs – not Levy
You may be right Robin. What happened to the “Klopp out” brigade ?They were out in force not long ago but now are strangely quiet. Maybe it’s because , by my reckoning, we could go second if we win our next league game?
They’re just bellends mate. Klopp isn’t beyond questioning but Klopp out?
Today I watched a thing on Channel 4’s Twitter account about the new Salah song. Again, I felt a pride to be a Liverpool fan. If you haven’t seen it you should. But actually, I’m starting to despise Liverpool fans. I know that’s stupid because it’s a very small section of the fan base who annoy me but it’s how I’m feeling. I saw a story on the potential development of the Annie Road. The reaction was one of being pleased. They’re only doing it to get more money when they sell. I saw an article on a ticket amnesty at Anfield that said, if you have had a relatives ticket for years don’t worry. It will be transferred to your name. We’re not looking to take it off you. The first comment on the article said ‘this is typical. Trying to take tickets away from locals who’ve had them for years so they can bring in tourists to spend in the club shop’. I saw we were interested in Allison. The reaction was ‘oh right, that means Salah is going to be sold to finance it’. John Henry tweeted that Liverpool’s win in Porto was fantastic. Now, there’s absolutely no need to acknowledge the tweet but to send abuse and incorporate vile abuse to his wife in those tweets is just weird. Karius tweeted that he was pleased with the win. The first 100 tweets were get out of our club you’re fuckin shite. There was a plan for an FSG out march last week because we didn’t buy anyone in January. Ok, these are degenerates leading these things but it’s still affecting my enjoyment of supporting Liverpool. They’re always there.
**reaction wasn’t one of being pleased
So pleased I don’t do social media.
FSG did try to sell some wooden seats though. Most fans are annoying because of their baseless positivity or baseless negativity. Is Karius shite? Are people free to post shite? Is it a free country? If peoples opinions are affecting your enjoyment of something then either ignore it or learn how to deal with it and enjoy supporting Liverpool again. If people are suspicious Salah will be sold its because FSG have a history of selling our best players. People displeased with FSG aren’t degenerates, they are displeased supporters, like them or not. There have always been whoppers at the game. Local and away whoppers at that.
If you wanna discuss whether Karius is shite or not, do it among your mates. Don’t tweet to him to tell him. One of those is normal behaviour, one is pathetic behaviour.
The problem for me is, those who are displeased with FSG never offer any solution of what they want in their place. I’ve asked a 100 times and never got a reply. Maybe you can tell me what you want from new owners. Then, between us we can work out whether your hopes for them are worth destabilising the club at this present time when we’re starting to look good on the pitch. I doubt you will there. It’s like having a debate with a kid screaming at the ice cream van that they don’t want a 99 with juice on and when you say ‘well, what do you want?’ they say scream ‘I don’t know’.
totally agree Robin – its beyond pathetic. And the fact these people have air time simply makes it worse.
These cowboys set the club back 10 years. We had something special from 2006 to 2009. One of the most feared teams in Europe. Think we forget how good we were.
The notion a club the size of ours with its underlying fundamentals would have ceased to exist had FSG no bought us is, frankly, fucking ridiculous.
“We won the day. Liverpool FC was saved and we saved the club, not FSG.”
Not really. H&G couldn’t pay the money owed to the bank, the bank gave a six month extension on condition of them accepting the club would be sold from under them if they didn’t come up with the cash; that didn’t happen so the club was sold to the best available offer.
What of the above happened as a result of SoS? What would have happened differently if supporters had stayed behind every match and sung the praises of Hicks and Gillett? It was FSG who paid the £300m to save LFC from administration, not the fans.
It’s turned out to be a great deal for them financially and football without fans is nothing but let’s not pretend the protests against Hicks and Gillett got rid of them – if they paid the banks what was due, they’d probably still be there today.
They would have refinanced with Blackstone if it wasn’t for SOS. I’m sure a few would have refinanced it for them.
Another thing I’d add. Like you, I didn’t really know the full details of what was going on at the time. It was only later when I read Brian Reade’s book I learned the full extent of what happened. I’d recommend it to you. You would probably be embarrassed about that comment.
I’ve not seen anything mentioned that would sway serious multimillion dollar companies – an email campaign? “Hi IT? Yeah, can you add a blacklist to any email featuring the words Hicks, Gillett or Liverpool F.C.? Whitelist these ten addresses though as we actually know them. Done? Excellent” and that would be it.
It’s lovely to think that fan power would have an influence but the truth is powerful figures and serious companies do not give a shit. LFC got saved from administration because the credit crunch prevented H&G from refinancing. SOS do many good things but they didn’t save LFC from administration – NESV handing over £300m did.
Like I say Charlie, you don’t really have an understanding of what went on and you don’t seem to have an understanding of the importance of customers and bad publicity to a global company. I genuinely don’t mean to be disrespectful when I say that. Why would RBS want to end H&G’s reign when they were onto such a good thing? It’s an important question to answer and I’d invite you to. It’s ludicrous to suggest a multi billion pound company that relies on it’s customers for it’s income wouldn’t care about those customers. Pressure was applied and they didn’t want to fight them. It would be too damaging.
Regarding the emails, they crashed the email server of Blackstone. I’m sure you’re right and measures could be taken to avoid it happening again but there’s a bigger picture to that. You don’t loan £300 odd million to a company at war with its customers. It’s far too risky.
You know Charlie, I’ve seen your previous comments on here and you’re clearly a passionate fan. I’d strongly urge you to read 44 months with a bunch of cowboys. I was utterly amazed so much had gone on that I had absolutely no idea about. Prior to reading it I probably claimed FSG (NESV) saved the club. After reading it I find it an embarrassing statement and I’m one of the ones that has no animosity to them. Please read it and come back and tell me the credit crunch brought H&G down (though it was certainly a factor that played a part in the overall story). I know you would change your view with more information.
Again, I fail to see where SOS changed anything in the process. The bank lent money to two individuals, the individuals were struggling to pay back the loan, the bank extended the credit on condition that if payments weren’t forthcoming then the bank would sell the club, H&G couldn’t come up with the cash, the bank sold the club rather than putting it into administration (which would have happened if a buyer hadn’t appeared).
I know plenty of fans have claimed credit to their campaign but I’ve not seen a single thing officially stated that backs that and there’s plenty of dubious claims on the other side.
For example, some fans have claimed their campaign crashed the email server of Blackstone. How? I work in IT and I know what it takes to crash an email server. A few thousand extra emails a day wouldn’t do it. Any evidence from Blackstone to say that happened?
Similarly RBS; you’re saying that businesses don’t annoy customers. This is a bank – annoying customers is pretty much their modus operandi. Secondly, they and their peers had just nearly bankrupted the western world. They did send it spiralling into recession and required a taxpayer bailout stretching to the billions. With that in mind, how bothered would people be by them refinancing a loan? What financial impact would that really have on the bank?
I’m not saying it’s impossible but I’ve not see anything concrete coming from sources other than LFC fans and for many of them, there’s a vested interest in presenting the campaign one way. If you can show me some proof, I am the sort of person who can have their minds changed by facts – I’ve been proven wrong many times in the past and adjusted accordingly.
I think that’s part of the point. RBS could easily have refinanced the loan. It was a drop in the ocean to them. They chose not to because of the pressure applied by SOS and the other groups. Others didn’t refinance it for the same reason.
Had there been no pressure from the fan group an entirely different narrative would have played out. My point last night was don’t listen to me, I wasn’t there. As a passionate Liverpool fan read the book and learn about what happened. I don’t think you’d regret it and would only benefit from knowing more.
On a separate point you make which interests me because if this belief you have that big business doesn’t care. There was no intent by RBS or any other bank to create the banking crisis so I don’t buy this ‘they don’t care’ attitude. The route of the crisis was down to no one fully understanding the complex derivatives markets they’d created after deregulation. The issues on Wall St made European banks look at their books and it suddenly dawned on them they’d lent irresponsibly and had too much toxic debt in derivatives. The French and German debt far outweighed that of British banks and dwarfed US bank debts. Because they’d given up their central banks for the ECB when they joined the Euro they couldn’t print any money. As the ethos of the ECB is not to bail out bad debt both those countries had to bail out their banks with tax payers money and tax payers money from elsewhere through the IMF hence the first Greek bailout wrapped up as ‘those irresponsible Greeks’. The point I’m trying to make is RBS played a small part in the banking crisis and certainly ‘cared’ in the same way they ‘cared’ about their customers. Next you’ll be telling me the sun don’t regret their actions. People power works.
Regarding the emails I believe they mobilised nearly 30k people to bombard the banks. I’d say they took note of that.
“Why would RBS want to end H&G’s reign when they were onto such a good thing?”…seriously? Only today it is reported “The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has handed over the report into Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s (LON:RBS) restructuring division to MPs, having decided not to make it public”….Plenty of RBS, FSG and G&H detail is not in the public domain. No one is privy to what RBS did or didn’t do when it came to the sale of LFC to FSG for a bargain price.
Had H&G refinanced the loan then RBS would continue to get about £30m in interest per year from a company who’s revenue was growing. It would have been bad for LFC but good for RBS and H&G. The crux of this whole story is why they didn’t refinance it and the answer is obviously down to pressure from SOS. Which bit don’t you agree with?
“Thousands didn’t get it and just ignored us.“
Including those watching with a beer bottle in hand from the windows of the Sandon and the Flat Iron as we marched past from the Supporter’s Club to the stadium. “Get out of our club, get out of our club… you greedy bastards, get out of our club” was changed in an instant to “Get out of the pub, get out of the pub… you lazy bastards, get out of the pub”.
A great effort by all concerned in organising and attending such demonstrations and marches, and of a course a special tip of the hat to those heroic internet terrorists.
This is all about the past. We lived through it, it’s over. Focus on today and the future. Great Manager good if not perfect owners and an exciting team.
I would like an authoritative account of how G&H obtained ownership of our belovered club in the first place. The version I’ve heard is that Rick Parry somehow persuaded David Moore’s to sell his shares to the American Gangsters despite the interest shown by the Monsour family who of course went on to buy Man City.
With regard to FSG I’m always a bit suspicious of owners who turn up at Anfield once in a red moon. At least the owners of the Bluenoses and Chelski are there every week
Out of interest, do you think we’d win the league if they turned up more?
Thought City’s owner didn’t turn up that often?
It was City’s first league title in 44 years, and grown men cried when Sergio Agüero’s goal in the penultimate minute of the season’s final game secured the title. Mansour watched it on television: he had only ever been to one match at City’s Etihad stadium, and did not enjoy the fuss his visit caused. In the hours that followed, his phone hummed, filling up with 2,500 messages.
From here https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/15/manchester-city-football-group-ferran-soriano
Oh and read Simon Hughes’ book Ring of Fire and the interview with Rick Parry – full story in there