Liverpool fans are finally taking their club back - and RBS could be next on the hitlist

By David Maddock

Published 15:50 21/09/10

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By all accounts, the computer systems at GSO Capital Partners went into meltdown at the weekend, and were out of action for some time.

This may not be particularly interesting to you, until you learn that GSO is the credit-focused subsidiary of Blackstone Partners, one of the world’s largest private equity firms.

Still not got it? Blackstone/GSO were one of the companies who had been in talks with Tom Hicks over potential refinancing of the debt placed on his and George Gillett’s purchase of Liverpool.

When supporters discovered the link at the weekend, they bombarded GSO with thousands and thousands of emails – estimates suggest even tens of thousands - making clear their passionate opposition to any deal which would sustain the American regime at Anfield.

GSO were swift to distance themselves from the Yanks, and in a conversation yesterday between one of their most senior executives and a Liverpool fans’ group, it was confirmed that the feelings of the supporters played a significant part in the refusal to deal with Hicks.

This is massively significant, because it is the first time anyone remotely related to the sale of Liverpool Football Club has acknowledged what we have always known about the game in this country – that clubs ultimately belong to their fans.

Businessmen can buy clubs; the greatest names in world football like Liverpool and Manchester United can be swept up by the leveraged buy-out merchants that represent capitalism’s worst excesses, but ultimately, they will be held to account by their fans, who are the moral owners.

For Hicks and Gillett, the day of reckoning has arrived. Since they bought the club more than three years ago, they have ridden roughshod over the feelings of the people to whom LFC mean more than a matter of life and death.

They have been brazen in their greed, arrogant in their disregard. And maybe, just maybe, they are about to pay for that.

Hicks has been talking to dozens of financial institutions because he is desperate to refinance, given that he will effectively lose Liverpool – and potentially at a big loss on his original investment – if he doesn’t.

His partner Gillett has already run up the white flag after defaulting on loans in the U.S. which used his stake in Liverpool as collateral. His financial empire is ailing, and experts suggest the house of cards is ready to collapse. That leaves Hicks carrying the can.

The Texan’s own empire is not exactly in rude health, and he would dearly love to make a big profit on his Anfield investment to bale it out. Hence his frenzied efforts in recent weeks to refinance.

But guess what. Every bank he has turned to has been bombarded with protests from supporters, pointing out the consequences of lending money to the Americans.

I have had direct dealings with many, many groups of fans, and they are deadly serious about their intent. If any institution allows Hicks to hold on to Liverpool any longer, then they can expect a shitstorm. A perfect one.

It is no idle threat, because the many millions of Liverpool fans out there carry a heavy economic weight. Just ask News International. The boycott of the Sun newspaper after their criminal reporting at Hillsborough destroyed that paper’s sales on Merseyside.

It is something Hicks and Gillett hadn’t considered when they took over at Anfield, they thought they were just getting a sports franchise with vast profit potential.

Now, the fans they have abused and insulted for the past three years could decide their fate, and there is a delicious irony in that.

In October, RBS must decide whether to call in the loans they have extended to the Americans. If they do, and if Hicks can’t find alternative finance, then he will almost certainly have to accept a sale of Liverpool at a big loss.

There is still a prospect of RBS refinancing Hicks and Gillett themselves, because they have made vast profits on the back of Liverpool fans - £20million alone in August - and will no doubt not want to give those up lightly.

But they will be foolish to do so, because they could lose thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of accounts, (I would add that mine will be one of them, but they’ll probably be glad of that!).

If they think they had negative publicity from the government bail-out and their former Chief Executive’s disgusting greed, then they really have seen nothing yet.

The same goes for the other dozen or so institutions Hicks is courting, because the Liverpool fans are onto them.

I have mentioned several times here the work of such fans groups as KopFaithful in this column, who have orchestrated an impassioned – but reasonable – protest against anyone who deals with the Americans.

They have been backed by fans’ websites such as The Liverpool Way, Red and White Kop, Anfield Online and Anfield Road (to name but a few of the many, many brilliant sites out there), who have all inspired many thousands of normal, everyday fans – people like you and me – to register the fact that they care, and their voice is important.

And the momentum is growing all the time. There is already a boycott RBS campaign underway, which will see large numbers of that banks’ customers withdraw their accounts, and boycott associated companies such as Direct Line and Churchills. It can be found here , and it is the tip of the iceberg as far as fans are concerned.

Another group, the Spirit of Shankly which has a widespread following, is organising direct protest at the upcoming games at Anfield against Sunderland and Blackpool. Visit their website for details.

There are other, equally important protests planned, by other, equally important groups, but the point is, the fans are all united (if you’ll forgive the phrase) on this issue now, and that spells bad news for Hicks and Gillett.

There is an email template doing the rounds at the moment which Liverpool fans can copy and sign, and send on to the RBS, as well targeting as any other bank thinking of dealing with the Americans. You can find it here , among other places, and it perhaps most pertinently asks the bank to do the decent thing on behalf of the fans, after taking so much of their money in the past three years.

If the fans’ protests aren’t enough, then there is one final consideration the RBS and any other bank considering a loan should take into account.

The board at Liverpool Football Club, which has a ruling majority of the people who actually run the club day to day, have made extremely clear that they do not agree with any attempt to refinance Hicks and Gillett.

So the question is, how can any bank or any financial institution justify loaning money to a company where even the people running that company are saying not to?

Given that the RBS is owned by us, I’d say the shareholders will be asking quite a few questions if that happens.

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