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| Fiscal Irresponsibility – The Reds: UEFA President Michel Platini demands fiscal responsibility in football. From next season that will begin to bite clubs that spend more than they bring in. Servicing debts will count against them too, which could affect Manchester United as its owners, the Glazer family, use the club’s assets to service their own debts. While Manchester United had problems inflicted on it due to lax rules allowing the takeover, its traditional rivals Liverpool faces worse problems, also through greedy American owners, exploiting rules that Platini is determined to finish once and for all. If ever wounds were self-inflicted and entirely predictable the Anfield club is the prime example of it. Big talk led nowhere. Promises to build a new stadium are no nearer completion and the manager’s transfers targets regularly slipped through their clutches. This caused problems on and off the pitch. Liverpool thrived on success, but were starved of the one that really mattered – the league title. Worse still great rivals Manchester United matched their record of league titles. Rafa Benítez spent six years at Liverpool. A top-transfer target Gareth Barry could not be prised away from Aston Villa by Liverpool, but Manchester City – then a smaller club, with no comnparable European pedigree and regularly finishing below Liverpool secured his signature. Big money owners investing in the Sky Blues is only part of the reason. Ambition played a part too. Top players no longer believe that Liverpool can challenge for top honours. City have time and resources on their side and ambition too. A Predictable Slide: The Benítez years were an improvement on Gérard Houllier’s time at the club, but ultimately he failed to bridge the gap at the top of the table. Unable to compete for top talent the gap in class grew. The Gang of Four became a Top Two as both Arsenal and Liverpool fell away from Chelsea and Manchester United for different reasons. Arsenal was fiscally responsible, but Arsène Wenger trusted in youth and refused to spend unnecessarily. Liverpool spent, but rarely secured the best players – Fernando Torres apart. Benítez was expected to perform miracles and could not repeat the magic of his final season at Valencia. Denied the resources he needed to improve the squad he delivered their last La Liga title in 2004 and threw in the UEFA Cup for good measure. His departure marked a down-turn in Valencia’s fortunes, but he was never able to build the squad he wanted at Liverpool either and presided over a decline in comparison to Manchester United and Chelsea, He no longer has that excuse. At Inter he has a world class squad and resources, but a very hard act to follow as well – the treble-winning José Mourinho. His last season at Anfield was marked by an increasingly bitter feud between former friends and current owners of Liverpool George Gillett and Tom Hicks, characterised by public bickering about their failure to steer the club to the promised land and wish to sell the club. Hicks blocked Gillett’s attempt to sell his shares to another investor and Gillett claims that he cannot work with Hicks any more. Quite how Hicks passed Liverpool’s tests on fitness to own a club, especially one of such stature remains an unsolved mystery. Hicks’ track record in baseball ownership suggests that he was a disaster waiting to happen. And closer perusal shows that he was previously a disaster in football too. A Texan Disaster: Hicks took over the Texas Rangers and promised the top-prize in the sport, the World Series. Despite delivering the American League West Division titles in 1998 and 1999, the first shortly after taking over the club, the promised big title never happened. Hicks then decided to build a team around the talented short-stop Alex Rodriguez, who was the most sought after player in the sport as his contract with the Seattle Mariners drew to a close in 2000. Free-agency meant that Rodriguez could choose who he wanted to negotiate with and owners were banned from colluding to fix bids. The result was an absolutely colossal blunder by Hicks that destroyed baseball finances for years to come. Rodriguez had plenty of offers. He settled on the best for himself from a financial point of view, $252m over ten years. But Hicks’ offer to Rodriguez was a staggering $100m more than any other team had made. So Rodriguez became a Texas Ranger in 2001 and Hicks his boss. While Rodriguez contributed well on the field for the team, his wages led to serious problems. Players wanted better contracts, but Hicks had no room to manoeuvre. Gaps could not be filled and the Rangers slid to ever decreasing depths. Later Hicks bemoaned the spiralling wages in baseball. What? Hicks’ stupidity regarding Rodriguez played a large part in ruining that team and also fiscal responsibility in baseball. Rodriguez was eventually traded to the New York Yankees in 2003 and Hicks promised to rebuild the team. Long-suffering Rangers fans are still waiting. Earlier this year Hicks sold his major stake in the franchise, but remains a share-holder. Hicks’ legacy in baseball was spiralling wages. His calls for fiscal responsibility is too little too late and before he made an utter mess of the Rangers he proved his credentials for ruining sport with a football disaster in Brasil. In 1999 Hicks’ company, which he has now retired from, purchased a stake in the famous Brasilian club Corinthians. The giants of São Paolo’s football were promised a new stadium that was never built – sound familiar. While their choice of partner may not have helped, a pattern of sporting disaster was emerging. And this was years before then Liverpool chairman David Moores decided to sell to Gillett and Hicks without researching their track records. Hicks’ previous failures should have had alarm bells ringing loud and clear. Destructive: Hicks bought into clubs that have enjoyed previous success but fallen on hard times, promising a return to the glory years. In reality he gives the impression of having chased a quick buck and viewed the clubs as assets for him to plunder. He fails to deliver on his promises and then leaves, or hangs on to maximise an ill-deserved return. Gillett regrets his partnership with Hicks and claims that he has received death threats from irate Liverpool fans determined that Hicks should not receive even one of Gillett’s shares. Meanwhile, an utterly unrepentant Hicks professes to believe that his tenure at the club has been a great success that means his investment should be rewarded four-fold in any sale. Steve Rotherham MP for Walton used his maiden speech in Parliament to denounce Hicks and Gillett. “England’s most successful football club is slowly being drained by the greed of two American asset strippers and this is having a negative impact on regeneration projects for the whole area,” said the new MP. “Unfortunately the beautiful game does not always attract those with beautiful intentions.” Meanwhile, Hicks is also being denounced in his homeland. The Rangers sale allows him to be buyer and seller and trade on the name of baseball great Nolan Ryan to push the sale through. He even used bankruptcy rules to smooth its path after his company Hicks Sports Group defaulted on $525m of loans in 2009. Creditors were forced to accept a worse deal offered by Chuck Greenberg and Ryan as Major League Baseball would not allow negotiations to take place with a rival putative owner Jim Crane. Hicks is reportedly worth $1b. Quite how Liverpool’s previous owners and board concluded that Hicks was a fit owner for the once great club defies belief. Liverpool fans plead for new owners – almost anyone – but questions have to be asked what the former chairman and his staff were thinking about when they sold one of the greatest clubs in world football to a man with Hicks’ track record. Moores hugely regrets the sale and has called on Hicks and Gillett to recognis their limitations as joint owners and to step aside with dignity for the greater good of the club. Hicks responded by valuing his shares at four times his initial investment. |
