Liverpool & China

[llego]

By all accounts this isn't premature.

 

How do you feel about the IMMINENT ownership of LFC by a Chinese government fund?

[G Richards]

I feel happy enough. If they release the cash to pay the debt, invest in the team and build the stadium, then bring it on. If they prove to be sensible owners with a long term view, so much the better.

 

The benefit to them is slightly different than the usual billionaire vanity project. It could be a real investment making real economic sense to CIC. Consider the rapidly emerging Chinese middle class, estimated to be as many as 600million people by 2015.

 

How many of them will want Liverpool kits?

How many of them will be paying to watch, not only on TV but on other platforms?

 

So I feel happy enough, but given what has happened before, I hope the right questions are being asked before this deal goes through.

[theghost]

I'm very, very, very uneasy.

[RedinSweden]

I went with uneasy. It doesn't really sit right, but as I am uncertain of what the other bids are and i definitely want rid of the yanks, I am chickening out.

 

Boo to private polls.

[Jose Jones]

Once bitten twice shy and all that.

[Paulie Dangerously]

There's 1billion shirts to be sold

[Red Phoenix]

Don't want them anywhere near us.

[Delmar]

Don't want them anywhere near us.

 

I'd want them a bit farther from us than that.

[Code]

First of all, why the private poll on such an issue?

 

Second of all I have more questions than answers to why I think this would be a good move apart from the obvious which is getting rid of our current custodonians.

[JER]

The alternative seems to be a used car salesman who is mates with Gillett - it is the ultimate Hobson's choice.

 

This looks worth a look (from twitter)

 

 

bensmith_times

 

One of Tony Barrett or Tony Evans will be doing an #lfc webchat on TheTimes.co.uk this afternoon. They will have the latest for you...

[JER]

Somehow this story seems more apt now

 

On the open top bus trip to Lime Street, Bill Shankly asked Brian Hall… “Son, You know about these things, who’s that Chairman with the red book, lots of sayings? The chinaman, what’s his name?” A bemused Brian Hall answered Chairman Mao to which Shankly replied “Aye, that’s him son, Chairman Mao, that’s him”…..

 

 

 

A few minutes later Shankly began to make a speech outside on the balcony of St. George’s Hall. Shanks held wide his arms and silence descended on the reds down below and delivered one of the greatest opening lines: “Chairman Mao has never seen the greatest show of red strength”

[sgerrard]

all we know of there intentions is what the press and sky are reporting.....

 

after yesterdays little episode on sky....we can fuck off anything those cunts say right away...

 

chinese/asian people are business men, and football is a business....

 

lets embrace it as that......we arent going to get some gooy eyed billionaire liverpool fan guys.....that would have happened a long time ago.

 

they will pump money into the club to make a better business....whats wrong with that?

 

not even fucking man united turn over a profit!.....with all they're sucess, does that make any sesne to you at all?

 

real madrid, barcelona, ac milan all thse clubs are in huge debt and do not make a profit each year.......what the fuck is all that about?!

 

so its good that some buiness men want to actually turn liverpool into a profitabel organisation....fuck being in debt, we have been there and done that.

 

we need money to buy players and a new stadium, they will give us this.........if we dont get a large amount of money to buy the worlds best player we will get left behind here......

 

what good is our tradition when we are falling behind other clubs?

 

we need to win things and to do that, we need money for players.

 

i welcome this bid, and i hope it happens.

 

all the other "groups" and "consortiums" dont have enough fucking money to pump into the squad......they will want to make a profit too.....everyone does now.

 

these chinese guysa re our best hope of getting the worlds best players....to play with gerrard and torres......they deserve that for the loyalty they have shown....and we deserve it after waiting for 20 years.

 

fuck the papers, fuck the press and fuck "ruining the game".......lets move forward.....or get left behind.

[James]

Happy if reasonable investment follows. I can't see us becoming the next City/Chelsea, even with very wealthy owners taking over. I'd just want the stadium plans to develop and our debt to decrease.

[JER]

Happy if reasonable investment follows. I can't see us becoming the next City/Chelsea, even with very wealthy owners taking over. I'd just want the stadium plans to develop and our debt to decrease.

 

Unlike those 2, we already have a massive name and history - David Villa has said he would have signed if we could have afforded it. I would argue that we don't need the same level of investment. I feel becoming debt free and increased exposure in Asia will be enough.

[KirkdaleRick]

[john23liverpool]

I would be gutted to be honest.

 

It would only end in tears.

 

If Martin Broughton is telling the truth about the six bids, then this Chinese government bid surely can't be the best for the club?

 

Saying all that, I would rather have them than H&G.

 

But I would rather have one of the other 5 supposed bids rather than the Chinese government.

[Kennys_spell]

By all accounts this isn't premature.

 

How do you feel about the IMMINENT ownership of LFC by a Chinese government fund?

 

I couldn't cast my vote as none of the options seperated the "Football investment" from the "Human rights" issue.

 

I've always thought that simply isolating and ignoring these people that carry out the human rights violations doesn't deal with the issue - it simply allows them to carry out the violations in isolation. ANY organisation that is guilty of human rights infringments (and there is no doubt that China doesn't have a good record on this subject) must be engaged and must be given the chance to see how it should be done properly.

 

Truth is, Liverpool Football club accepting or rejecting funds from their wealth fund will have no effect on the Chinese government.

 

That's my two-penneth worth anyway.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Sitting a bit uneasy myself. When those two haemorrhoids "Itchy and scratchy" took over i said to fellow fans at the time that all that glitters is not gold. The bull shit those pair of twats came out with was just to hard to swallow considering they didn't have a fucking scoobies about football.

 

Maybe if the Chinese bid comes to fruition then it could work out to be a successful one, but until certain positives like the start of a new stadium build getting under way and investment in the squad i'm always going to feel a bit uneasy about things as we've been fucked over by blank promises enough.

 

If the Chinese fans buy into this and the consortium make a fortune on tapping into the market there then things could be sweet. If it doesn't turn out to be returning huge profits to cover their outlay then we could see ourselves back at square one and the wrong fight on our hands.

 

Business and the attempts to make huge profits is a ruthless World. It's tapping into football and many are getting their fingers burnt due to debt. Rich people who own a club for the love of the game are few and far between and are being squeezed out by those who see the sport as a way of making money with little love for the game.

[Duncan Clench]

Pleased to be rid of the Yanks. Don't want to end up like City. As long as any investment is sensible, then I'm happy.

 

So I'm uneasy, because I'm worried that we'll have too much money.

[TheDrowningMan]

When you reach a certain level of wealth you're going to have friends in the very highest of places. Anyone who could purchase us is invariably going to have such connections and such connections are usually dubious. China has a dubious human rights record but I don't see that, proportionately, ours is an awful lot better. We (okay, our politicians / media) just like to lie that we're unimpeachable paragons of virtue. The British government just likes to make sure that most of its killing is done off-shore.

 

Besides, we all use China. Look at your cool gadgets, look at where these things upon which you depend are made. It's a shame, really, but football is a business and Liverpool FC - at least the side which needs to make money and fuel success - is a commercial venture. It would be folley to treat it any differently than the masses of products bearing the words 'Made in China'. There may be less direct government involvement but the production lines are hardly going to be discouraged and run entirely independently of the powers that be.

[torahboy]

Liverpool is home to the the earliest established Chinese comunity in Europe. They have been a really beneficial addition to our city and I would imagine that CIC may well have the same effect.

 

No one should take human rights issues lightly, but I believe that the representation of Chinese internal affairs by our media may well be coloured by the fact that they are commenting on a Communist country, and we all know how reasonable our newspaper and tv moguls are when it comes to promoting such an ideology. It was known at the time that Abramovich was heavily involved in human rights abuses in obtaining the majority shareholding and, ultimately, ownership of Sibneft, but no media cages were rattled then.

 

So let's not be too judgemental about the kind of people who get involved in ridding us of the pair of absolute, fucking, moronic cunts who are currently fucking our club up.

[Red Banjo]

Uneasy for me.

 

Anyone who comes in with an 'investment' background - is just using it as a business deal. And when business men buy football clubs, it goes wrong. As we've already found out.

 

Surely there must be another billionaire like Abramovic out there - who just wants to spend his money on creating a monster footy team in a real life championship manager scenario.

 

One insanely rich owner please. A governent or collection of bankers can go fuck.

[Red Nick]

Absoutley delighted if the deal went through we would be the best team in world football within 3 seasons.

 

I was one of those few people who voiced my sadness and concerns about the American deal but this time I would be delighted.

 

The Amount of money we would make in China would allow us to literally have the best 11 players in the world in our team and the best manager in the world. Surely no LFC fan would object to that and it would be from earned income.

 

Wouldnt it be great to be the envy of the world rather than the laughing stock

[Red Nick]

A more sensiible and more important Poll would be the question I posed to Red Knight last night.

 

Keep the exisiting owners or have new China owners?

 

It is easy to say what you do want but not so diifficult to say what you do want that is realistically achievable.

 

Just remember DIC were racist pigs.

[Archer]

Uneasy for me.

 

Anyone who comes in with an 'investment' background - is just using it as a business deal. And when business men buy football clubs, it goes wrong. As we've already found out.

 

Surely there must be another billionaire like Abramovic out there - who just wants to spend his money on creating a monster footy team in a real life championship manager scenario.

 

One insanely rich owner please. A governent or collection of bankers can go fuck.

 

Spot on. The whole thing just smells bad.