The Anfield Gulf Club

by Jonathan Northcroft on Sunday, 17 December 2006

Steven Gerrard slept for the first time in days, smiled for the first time in weeks. His panic ebbed, his migraines stopped, the paracetamol he had been chomping “like Smarties” went back in the bathroom cabinet. It was 6 July 2005, and he was going to sign a new contract with Liverpool, finally ending the draining saga of his potential move to Chelsea. Yet he didn’t drive straight home. “I stopped at the chairman’s house in Halsall,” Gerrard says. “He loves Liverpool with the same passion as me. Just talking to Mr (David) Moores reminded me how right I was to stay.”

Even institutions change. In the future, if a Liverpool captain wants to drop in on the club’s owner, he may have to board an Emirates jet and go through the diplomatic protocol involved in an audience with a head of state.

Last week, Dubai Investment Capital (DIC) confirmed that it is in “exclusive negotiations” and is examining Liverpool’s accounts with a view to taking over. A very senior source involved in the deal is “80% positive” the buyout will go ahead and be completed “by the turn of the year”.

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DIC is an arm of Dubai Holding owned by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai. It would cost the sheikh US$330m to acquire Liverpool, in which Moores, whose family have been owners for 50 years, has a 51.7% holding. Debts of US$156m and the club’s commitment to a new stadium could lift the price as high as US$974.5m. And DIC can pay cash.

“We’ll build the stadium pronto and invest in players, though there’ll be no blank cheques,” said a source at DIC. “We’re serious investors looking for returns. Liverpool won’t turn into Chelsea, but it will become closer to Manchester United.” A leading football analyst was less cautious: “This will catapult Liverpool into the Abramovich league.”

Moores and Liverpool’s chief executive, Rick Parry, have pulled off the boardroom equivalent of their team’s comeback in the Champions League final in Istanbul. With Moores lacking the personal wealth to bankroll parity with Europe’s richest clubs, the search for investment began in 2003. Suitors emerged, such as former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but vanished like a mirage. A few months ago Moores and Parry began planning for the doomsday scenario that new backers might not be found. A study was secretly commissioned to see if Liverpool could build their new stadium and fund transfers through borrowing. The plan that emerged was debt-laden and high-risk. Supporters pilloried Parry for perceived inertia.

Yet he had not an ace up his sleeve but an Arab ruler. Seated among the VIP fans in Istanbul was Sameer Al-Ansari, the Kuwaiti-born, British-educated chief executive of DIC. The screensaver on al-Ansari’s BlackBerry phone is the LFC crest; a Liverpool supporter for 32 years, he takes his two sons on a pilgrimage to Anfield every August and attends most of the big Liverpool games. “He can talk about the merits of the 1977 European Cup-winning side compared to the 1981 team,” said the DIC source. “This is not a guy pretending to be a fan.”

Al-Ansari began scrutinising the buyout opportunity at Liverpool and started a dialogue with Parry that led to 18 months of painstaking meetings on Merseyside and in Dubai. “This is not a shotgun wedding,” said a senior figure inside Anfield. “They’ve looked hard at us, but we’ve also looked hard at them. DIC understand the values and traditions of the club, that’s what they’re buying into. Remember, the most important value in Liverpool’s heritage has always been winning. The old Shankly adage, ‘first is first and second is nowhere’, fits perfectly with the philosophy of the sheikhs.”

Al-Ansari went to an inner-city London comprehensive, which “taught me to be streetwise”, and he negotiated as a businessman, not a fan. Moores was manoeuvred downwards from the initial US$584.8m he wanted for Liverpool. “Being a supporter ironically made Sameer have to work harder to make the deal stack up. He had to show his bosses this was a good investment, nothing else,” said the DIC source. Liverpool is relieved not to be dealing with “an Abramovich”. “It would be wrong for us. It wouldn’t be our style or fit with our fans. Liverpool is about winning — but getting there through hard work,” said the Anfield figure. “We know for DIC this is not about having a trophy asset which wins a couple of titles.”

Sheikh Mohammed has connections with the game. His father, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al-Maktoum, the architect of modern Dubai, inaugurated a new football stadium in the emirate in 1978. Liverpool played at its opening. Three of Sheikh Mohammed’s seven sons, Majid, Rashid and Hamdan, are ardent football fans. “Sheikh Rashid and Sheikh Hamdan are very good players and play for Dubai teams, Rashid is a midfielder,” said Duncan Revie, who has known the Maktoums since his father, Don, quit as England manager in 1977 and moved to Dubai to manage the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Revie is the brains behind Soccerex, the globally renowned football conference held in Dubai, of which Hamdan is patron. “They’ll (the Maktoum family) get the best in the world to achieve their goals. They have the greatest airline in the world, the greatest hotels and greatest horses and they’re turning their focus to the greatest game in the world. Next time the World Cup goes to Asia, I expect the UAE to be in the mix for hosting it. This will be a serious look at football and at making Liverpool the best.”

While al-Ansari is the deal-broker, it is “clear” to Anfield board members that the Maktoums are the “driving force”. Sheikh Mohammed understands the image-making potential of the game. Sheikh Rashid was behind the England team’s stay in Dubai before the 2002 World Cup, and he also ensured that the likes of Michael Owen came to buy exclusive real estate in Dubai. He is overseeing the construction of Dubai Sports City, a vast complex that will feature a 60,000-capacity football stadium and soccer school. “This is a small deal for Dubai in money terms but huge in publicity terms. They know owning Liverpool will put them under the microscope and they can’t be half-hearted,” said the Anfield figure.

“Racing is his love, but above everything Sheikh Mohammed is absolutely single-minded in getting Dubai on the map,” said the racing associate. “His inspiration for Godolphin was having the best horses racing all around the world. Excellence is at the heart of it and we’re dealing with indescribable wealth. Liverpool won’t be pottering mid-table.”

Life, nonetheless, would change for Rafael Benitez under DIC.

Recently, in an informal conversation, the manager expressed to me anguish about competing against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal on a smaller budget. “Think of the values of the squads. This is Chelsea,” he said, opening a notepad at the front. “This is Manchester United, here is Arsenal,” he said, turning the pages. Then he went near the back of the book: “Liverpool.” A year ago Benitez closed in on a centre-back, only to be gazumped by Manchester United: Now Nemanja Vidic is arguably the Premiership’s best defender. His solution to Liverpool’s right-sided problems was first Simao Sabrosa, then Daniel Alves, but their clubs asked for more than US$23.4m. Jermaine Pennant was all he could afford.

The new stadium at Stanley Park, adjacent to Anfield, will bring match day revenues close to Manchester United and Arsenal’s. It is due to open in 2009. Projected costs have risen from US$156m to US$390m and may rise to US$487.3m. DIC will not mind investing in infrastructure. Madame Tussauds, which it bought in 2005, posted impressive profits after building new attractions in Shanghai and Hong Kong. DIC puts in money and monitors operations via representatives on the board, but has left the running of Tussauds to an existing successful management team. A similar model is expected at Liverpool, with Moores remaining on the board and Parry continuing as chief executive, but power held by al-Ansari in Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed has a home in London, a residence near Newmarket and owns the Carlton Tower Hotel in Knightsbridge; should he wish to attend a Premiership match, he would not be short of places to stay. “There is no point avoiding a fall by never climbing,” he says. Liverpool have their trajectory set for altitude. Gerrard shouldn’t be getting headaches over Chelsea ever again.

Copyright Sunday Times 2006

Liverpool FC: The men behind the deal

The club

Liverpool FC has said that it wants the funds to compete with other global soccer giants but that is does not want to devalue the history created by club legends such as Bill Shankly.

LFC has stressed that its proud culture, haul of trophies and winning ways, started in the 1960s under Shankly’s management and continued throughput the 1980s and 1999s with stars such as Kenny Dalgliesh and Ian Rush, is more important than anyone taking over the club wanting to turn a profit. However, the club has long been in search of a new stadium and the DIC deal could allow them to build a new 60,000-seater home at a cost to the new Dubai investors of around US$400m.

Rick Parry, Liverpool’s chief executive

Believed to have targeted Dubai investors because he believes in quality, Parry has an eye on the long-term and is more than aware of Shankley’s “Liverpool way” of running the club. It is well known that Parry and his chairman have said they did not want it to become an “individual’s plaything” or have to deal with the debt mountains looming over many of Britain’s football clubs. Parry is said to be encouraged that DIC and Sameer al-Ansari, DIC’s Liverpool-supporting CEO whom he met for the first time at Liverpool’s Champions League victory in Istanbul, understand the club’s culture.

Rafael Benitez, Liverpool manager

The Spaniard has allegedly met the club’s prospective new owners for the first time. DIC is close to completing a US$900m takeover of the Merseyside club, although Benitez claims that he does not know if he will have money to spend when the transfer window opens next month, in the event that the deal goes through. Benitez met with Sameer al-Ansari, the DIC chief executive, after the 4-0 win over Fulham at Anfield last week. “They’ve made it clear they want to do the right things for Liverpool in the long term,” he said.

David Moores, chairman

Moores is set to make a lot of money if the deal goes through as the club’s major shareholder with 51% of the club’s stock. Of DIC’s proposed US$900m, just under half, which is likely to be borrowed, will be needed to build the stadium, and Liverpool’s debts are around pounds US$200m. The rest will be paid to the shareholders. As Moores has 51% of the shares, he will personally make a little under US$157m.

Moores’ background: He worked for the family company but never reached a senior position. He then inherited part of the family fortune, including some shares in Liverpool. He is, by his own admission, not a businessman, and was always more interested in music and football, worrying what fans think. When Liverpool needed money to develop Anfield they rejected the stock market floats. Instead, in June 1994, Moores paid around US$15.7m for 15,164 new shares in a rights issue that raised US$18.3m.

He has always been seen as an owner putting money in, but in negotiations for investment over recent years a full price has been sought.

We’re serious investors looking for returns. Liverpool won’t turn into chelsea

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