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R/£ Early exit leaves 'Pool in the red
November 26, 2009 Edition 1
LONDON: After the elimination, the calculations.
The timing for Liverpool of an exit from the Champions League - a tournament that has defined them during Rafael Benitez's tenure - is dreadful, as the club prepare to step up efforts in the next six months to sell a 25 percent share of the business in return for a £100-million cash injection.
That process is under way - there are interested parties - but the "sell" to prospective investors is that Liverpool are among Europe's elite, the footballing equivalent to a FTSE blue-chip company. Europa League football doesn't do much for that particular brand image.
A run through to the latter stages of the Champions League would, of course, have brought huge riches, but the short-term financial consequences of Fiorentina's result in Stadio Artemio Franchi are actually quite bearable.
Liverpool had budgeted only to progress as far as the last 16 in the Champions League this season, and the club calculated the lost earnings of not making it that far at around £2,6m.
If Liverpool play three two-leg ties in the Europa League campaign next spring, they would expect to earn around £3m and therefore be £400000 ahead of their budgeted European earnings for this season.
So the junior trophy does have its benefits, as Werder Bremen discovered last season by earning more money by winning the Uefa Cup than Bayern Munich did in reaching the Champions League quarterfinals.
But Tuesday's turn of events can only damage Benitez when it comes to the substantial investment in players he needs.
With Liverpool carrying debts of £250m, and with the stalled stadium project in need of another £400m, there will be little transfer market activity around Anfield in January - loan deals to reinforce in defence and for a back-up striker are likely - and Benitez is probably looking at a zero nett spend in the summer.
It also leaves him to face what always looked like the real battle once Liverpool's draw in Lyon left the Spaniard needing a "miracle" - a top-four finish to restore Liverpool's credibility and their place in the continental elite.
Though the conservative business model being put before prospective investors is understood to budget for a fifth place for Liverpool in the Premier League, even the baseline estimate of not making the Champions League for the first time since the 2003/04 season is put at £8m-10m by the club. And then there is the symbolic significance of, say, Manchester City, eclipsing them. - The Independent
MONEY TALK$
What Liverpool missed out on, and what awaits them:
List does not include TV revenue
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