Moores and Fan Power

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I admire what David Moores did this week. We all know he made a mistake when he sold to the current owners, and ( maybe belatedly ) he has come out and admitted as much. Given that we cannot change the past, we should applaud his entry into the debate and by doing so putting what pressure he can on the current owners to sell.

But consider this. It could have been just as much of a mistake to sell to DIC, given their current financial problems, and of the other offers on the table, the one from Thailand would have been a million times worse.

I’m sure someone will disprove this as soon as it is published, but at the time of the takeover, I don’t remember a single protesting voice amongst fans or ex-players. And yet now we are all busy voicing our anger at Mr Moores for not doing his research. Truth is, we were all taken in by the terrible twosome, and now is the time for moving forward, not apportioning blame.

Which brings me to my point. Back in 2007, we were all desperate for investors so that we could ‘compete’ with the richer clubs in the Premier League. Fast forward to 2010 and we are again all desparate for investors so that we can ‘compete’ with the richer clubs in the Premier League. The only difference is that the number of richer clubs has now grown. How do we make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes again ?

I believe that the answer is fan power. The bald truth is that Martin Broughton and Christian Purslow have been appointed to sell the club. Not to guarantee it’s long term future, nor to make a decision in the best interest of the fans.  I’m a fully paid up member of both SOS and Share Liverpool, but in all honesty,  both memberships are more in hope rather than inticipation of the desired outcome. Yes, Barcelona is run and owned by the fans – but that was a model of ownership that was built in the past and whilst it survives today, realistically, with the riches in the current game, it’s not something that is likely to happen.

So to balance the money men, I believe it’s time for the club to put a real Fan’s representative in place at board level. This person would be elected but have real voting rights, and be the bridge between the board and the fans. Someone who would, to put it bluntly, ‘do the research’ from the fan’s point of view and make sure that the soul of the club is guarded. Someone who has been in business, knows their way round a Profit and Loss account, and can hold their own. But most importantly, one of us.

14 Comments

  1. Its difficult to see the benefits of fan power! As much as I admire the work of the Spirit of Shankly, it will never work. Barcelona, Real Madrid and other teams make it work because they aready have massive stadiums which brings so much turnover every game. Fans owning the club will make things worse! We just need to sit back and wait for these yanks to go! Im confident that they will be gone soon! Good piece though! You are 100% true in saying everyone welcomes the yanks with open arms….and now look!

  2. ex players and fans didnt need to know if hicks and gillet were bad business men as at that point we trusted moores and parry. Moores was the only person who needed to know what the yanks were like as he was selling the club that we love and he pretended to love.Moores would of known it was bad business if he cared enough to check but he didnt give a shit and took the word of two fat greedy yanks. moores and parry are just as bad as hicks and gillet. he is friends with the yanks and has decided when the yanks have officially put the club up for sale to open his fat greedy traitor mouth. Moores is scum i hate him as much as the yank filth. YNWA

  3. i knew the yanks were no good at the beginning as i checked on the net it took me 2 mins to know that hicks is a complete idiot. so why didnt moores check???????????????????????????????????????.
    we cant be owned by fans it isnt financially viable. and i cant see someone who pays the 6-800 mill will want a fans rep trying to tell them what we want. a new owner just needs to read up on lfc and he will know we want success we want some local players coming through and above all we do not want to be put through this shit ever again. YNWA

  4. I am writing this comment with tears. Our beloved club is in a very bad state and it will continue to do so. So many mistakes had been done from many people including M.Moores Rick Pary and these two Americans. Liverpool Fc was bouilt by Shanks to fight fo every top honour in the game and now and in the future will be a mid table club signing players at the end of their carrers. I will explian this Man utd and Chelsea ae in a class of their own Arsenal have been bette than us for 15 years, Spurs have moe money and better squad than us Man city have all the money in the world and illa will spend again this Summer and that leaves us in seventh place fighting with Everton and Birmingham.

  5. We as fans were taken in by H&G, but we are not millionaire buisness men like Moores and Parry, and we as fans were not in control of the fate of our great club. They were. Your Idea regarding a democratically elected fans representative on the board is a winner, and would be a safeguard against further trespasses against the club. I hope that when the new owners take over the club that Moores donates the 88m he earned from the sale of the club, as he is so sorry and the money does not mean anything to him. According to his 3,000 letter.

  6. Moores allowed his personal desire to make big bucks from the sale distract him from his obligation to find the right custodians for our beloved club! Simple as….. with regard to our two blood sucking leaches (H&g)the banks should stop pussy-footing around with these two losers and force them to sell the club at a reduced price – selling the club in a couple of months is totally unacceptabler, they must stop tormenting the fans and sort the future out now; no body wants the situation to drag on and on …after what they’ve put us through over the last three years, that’s the very least they owe us!

  7. Thanks for the responses. I agree fan ownership is impossible, which is why I suggest that representation is the best we can hope for.

    On Moores, someone makes a good point about us being fans not international businessmen… And that’s the thing about Moores isn’t it – he’s a fan too at the end of the day, not a businessman, and during his reign football changed from a ‘hobby’ to a business

  8. “Which brings me to my point. Back in 2007, we were all desperate for investors so that we could ‘compete’ with the richer clubs in the Premier League.”
    And why was that?
    Because of Moores and Parry’s naive and negligent lack of stewardship for 15 years.
    Arsenal had a new ground and investment and sponsrship. So did the Mancs, effectively. Chelski bought their “glory”
    We became a fucking joke. And that’s down to these two clowns. And to say DIC would have been a bad option in comparison is beyond rational thought. And plenty of – uninformed – fans had their doubts. Moores has said the Board was doubting DIC because of a 7 year exit strategy rumour. Let me repeat that. A SEVEN year exit strategy rumour. What about a THREE YEAR fucking implosion? I’m sorry but Parry and Moores can’t be defended not just for this disasterous decision but for the years of ineptitude and incompetence before that.
    Now we’re saddled with 2 fuckwits who are going to destroy this club in pursuit of their own financial gain. I’ve never been one to support organised violence but if these 2 got taken out I’d be the first to applaud.

  9. Don’t agree with your assesment of DM at all. You can’t lump him in with fans as if we all would have made the same mistake. As a chairman he has a duty to do proper due diligence
    and he and Parry simply failed to do so. With the price he was asking there would have been many more potential buyers other than the ones you mentioned. So what if it would have taken another 3 or 4 years? Better that then the state we are in now anyone can leverage an asset. To admit in his letter that he has never used a computer is a joke. Of course it isn’t just about Googling Hicks but at least that would have shown the Corinthian and other disasters this crook has been involved in and resulted in the right questions being asked. Why didn’t the sale contract insist in the stadium funds being in place at time of purchase? Moores’s blunder has lead to the possible downfall of our great club and all that cowards letter did was try and blame everybody else. You call him Mr. Moores as if he deserves respect like some 19th century Mill owner. The man is a buffoon.

  10. David Moores supported the club for a number of years ,using his own money as and when he was able! He is basically just the average bloke who loved LFC and tried with his lack of business acumen to do as much for the club as he could! He then realised that he would not be able to keep up with the likes of Abromovic and the Frasers etc. Regardless of peoples criticism he realised at the last minute that DIC were not to be trusted, and so,put the sale of the club to the then board of directors, who in turn voted to accept the offer from the ‘YANKS’. The greedy board members,(share holders)voted to accept the offer!So Moores should’n’t be blamed fully on his own! ALSO, I think it is true that his own profit on the sale was about 8 Milion,but even then he had already used his own money on the club in times of need!
    It would have been far better for LFC if MOORES and Steve MORGAN had been able to work together with the money that Morgan had offered to buy in further! With those two sharing ownership it would then have been possible to introduce parcial ‘FAN’ ownership in the future – thereby evetually having a similar system to the likes of Barcelona!!! ???

  11. the only main people to blame are mr MOORES & mr PARRY mate i think that this was a mistake by these two to sell the club to tom & jerry, the only think they both captured a lot of money in there pokets mate, every lfc fan so what they done to our great club, there si no excsuses about by moores the only blame is now on that we are in the dark night, and i tell you something, that liverpool will fight for relegation next term wait and see mate cause torres , gerrard , mascherano ,pepe ,will all gone away before next term starts mate.mr MOORES has to go somewhere in the amazone to dont see people around him specially lfc fans .

  12. I still think selling to DIC would have been a great option regardless of their current financial situation, look at Texas Rangers, these Two chuckle brothers have no idea on how to handle a football team, country who calls Football Soccer what do they know (No offence to anyone who calls Football Soccer :p).

    Moores Came out with excuses on how mistakes were made but what’s the point of all this, clubs already in a mess, I think YES we need players but if this team works together next season (those players who work with Torres and Gerrard not just rely on them) we only need 2-3 players lets keep our best players and get rid of players (Chip woods) and buy impact players, Change of mind though from me Lets keep Benny, Kuyt not much out there that we can afford At the moment After looking properly :P

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