Purslow Denies Any Administration Fears For Liverpool

Liverpool managing director
Christian Purslow has dismissed
fears the club will go bust
should the current ownership
issues not be successfully
resolved.
But he has warned Tom Hicks,
who is trying to put together a
package to restructure his loans
and buy out fellow co-owner
George Gillett, that the board will
not allow him to use Liverpool's
assets as security in any
refinancing deal. The two
Americans owe £237million
plus additional huge penalty fees
to the Royal Bank of Scotland and
the loan is up for repayment or
renegotiation in mid-October.
"Liverpool Football Club is not
going bust. We have an
extremely healthy business with
record revenues and we are
highly profitable," Purslow said.
"We have cash, we are solvent,
we have banking facilities which
last beyond the end of next
season and we are heavily
scrutinised by the Premier
League.
"To achieve our UEFA licence we
went through that process and
they were very happy with what
they saw - so I cannot conceive
of a situation where Liverpool
Football Club could go into
administration.
"The issue today is that too much
of our profit is being used to
service loans put into place when
the club was bought.
"We are dealing with that issue.
When we sell the business that
debt will be reduced or go away,
which will make us the most
profitable club in the Premier
League."
Hicks has already had one
refinancing project vetoed by the
club's board, when Purslow,
chairman Martin Broughton and
commercial director Ian Ayre out-
voted the two Americans.
When the Texan entered into
discussions with investment
group Blackstone last week the
rest of the board began
exploring the possibility of a legal
challenge.
Blackstone ruled themselves out
of the proposal on Monday and
Purslow stressed no new
refinancing would be allowed
which aimed to utilise assets like
Anfield, the club's Melwood
training ground or even players.