Kirdi loses interest in Reds
The pressure on Liverpool’s owners to find a buyer before an October 15 deadline has increased after one potential buyer claimed there was no “logic” in their high asking price.
Canada-based Syrian investor Yahya Kirdi said the group he is representing has shelved plans to buy the club.
Owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett need to find a buyer before October 15 to repay their £282m (€324m) loans to the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia.
If they are unsuccessful then RBS are poised to take control of Liverpool, the asset against which the loans are secured, and sell the club themselves to recoup their cash.
Hicks and Gillett initially sought an asking price of around £800m (€920m) for Liverpool, a figure that they subsequently dropped to £600m (€690m), but that has been too much for Kirdi.
Kirdi told Bloomberg: “Right now is not the time for me and my group to enter into any negotiations.
“Once everyone is united and there’s logic in the price and the overall deal, me and my group will be prepared to return to the table.”
There had been some doubts over whether Kirdi was a serious contender to buy Liverpool because he refused to name his backers and is a friend of Gillett’s son Foster.
But he added: “I’m a serious man. I’m not playing but my group said they didn’t want to go public because we haven’t done the deal.”
Liverpool are in desperate need of stability off the pitch after a terrible start to the season on it – they are currently in the bottom three of the Premier League after their worst league start for more than half a century.
