Sunny

It's a shame FIFA don't take a closer look at a certain Jack Warner.

OK. My view - both Celtic and Rangers are big clubs with lots of fans globally. Are they as big as Liverpool, Man Utd? No, but doesn't mean they don't have a massive fan base - they do. Debt is indeed rife in the EPL and does need sorting out but it's rife everywhere. Barcelona being a prime example at the moment to the point where the new board are suing the old board for mismanagement. The Bundesliga model is a great model to work towards - that much I agree. FIFA financial fair play rules are going to mean bad news for the like of Chelsea and City but I do agree with them. It will not be the panacea for Scottish football though as the problems are much wider than simply revenue. I think the claims of the EPL being corrupt is a little hysterical as is blaming Scottish footballs shortcomings on it's proximity to the EPL. Scotland is a small (population wise) country and it's population density is fairly low. There's a huge amount of teams compared to the capita number. It essentially dilutes supporter numbers for teams other than the big two. As for Celtic and Rangers joining the EPL. It's been a subject of debate for years. It's never going to happen. Why should they be granted any kind of automatic status into the EPL in front of English teams who been working hard to get there for years ? And let's not forget this is Scotland that wants full devolution from England. Scots generally want nothing to do with England - their own country, government etc.. but, when it suits them - we'd like to join your huge income generating league please? Sorry if I find that slightly hypocritical. Celtic and Rangers will always have an issue whilst they play in Scotland. I've already stated they are huge clubs - anyone who questions that really is wide of the mark. Their only real competition is each other. The television rights, sponsorships and associated funding are poor due to the lack of interest and people watching the league. They will struggle to attract top players because of this.Also who, in their right mind, wants to play in winter in Inverness in front of 4000 people ? The attendance levels overall in the SPL are woeful - not just from numbers but from a percentage aspect. Take the following as an example: http://stats.football365.com/dom/SCO/PR/attend.html Even Celtic and Rangers don't hit 90% average attendance Now compare to the EPL http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/attend.html Celtic and Rangers are large historical clubs but will always struggle to be truly great European clubs whilst they exist in the SPL. It's a weak league and I mean no offence when I say that. I don't think the EPL for them will happen. A European league however is always a realistic possibility.

Ok. So it's a sport derived or pertaining to another nation? Then basketball is foreign is it not ? Was it not invented by a Canadian ? As is ice hockey - origins in Britain, modern game in Canada. Baseball has origins in rounders FFS. Do not the USA play 'soccer' ? Or was that a different USA playing at the world cup? To be honest - sport is sport and it's played in different countries by different people with varying degrees of popularity within differing countries. Sport is global and only a xenophobic fool would think otherwise.

@flred and daveymac. flred has some valid points about Rafa with regards he'd still spent a lot and, at times, bought badly. As all managers do. Alex Ferguson has bought is fair share of duffers. Problem is the issues are magnified at Liverpool due to the overall weakness of the squad. The blame for that can be laid at Rafas door but there's no way you cannot lay that at the door of the owners either. Net investment, for a club, of our side was atrocious. Something like ?27m during the reign of Gillet and Hicks. Sickening given me spent many multiples of that on interest and penalty payments - perhaps four or five fold. Benitez does have to take the blame for how the players performed on the pitch - he simply wasn't making the best of what he had. Nor is Hodgson.

If you don't like it lad, don't read it. Not really a difficult concept is it? 'Foreign' sports...do you ever read what you write?

What ? Near destroying a football club and getting rich of the back of that and misery you've but millions of people through ? Yeh, OK.

Coincidentally, on this day in 1903 the Boston Red Sox won the 1st World Series.

I'd like to see the Rangers win. One because it's against the Yankees and, two, to prove life does exist after the curse of Tom Hicks.

I hate the face we need new ownership. I hate the fact our new owners are lying corrupt and obsessed with getting rich and fat at the cost of our club. I hate watching a once great club being eaten away by these cancers we call owners. But, if I was a Red Sox fan, I wouldn't be overly worried - all Liverpool need is some proper strategic investment and better marketing. We're profitable now without the LBO debt. We can bring in even greater revenues which would eclipse anything the Red Sox could generate (and that's not a slur on the Sox) due to our global fan coverage. And I expect NESV will see a return on that revenue which utlimately benefits all entities under their umbrella.

John - I can't disagree with you on the team investment side of things but I do disagree with you on the stadium thing. IF the team is playing well I think we'll fill the stadium, at least for league games - but that all depends on the team performance. Using Man Utd as an analogy for our situation is a bit far fetched. Sure they haven't hit their season ticket targets of 54000 , only 51,500 (which is higher than our total attendance) but their executive sales were right on track (something that we're particularly bad at. Bear in mind there's a recession on too. They've also had average attendances in the league of over 75,000. That's what a competitive succesful team brings you. The stadium is pointless without improvements in the team but, if we had a decent side competing for things we'd easily fill a 60k stadium. We were shite 10 years ago and tickets were like rocking horse s*** then. As for fan ownership - we'd all like that but given the price of the club, and ShareLiverpools model, I don't think it's achievable to date.

When you say ticket prices are high - how high ?

Thanks for the welcome BSN. I'm hoping and looking forward to the prospective partnership between our great clubs. I've just been reading about the Red Sox on Wiki for the last half hour. Great reading about the 2004 comeback from 3 games down against the Yankees. Stirring stuff. As for the state of our team. It's probably half way between decent and overhaul. We've some great players on our team - notably Gerrard, Torres and Reina and we've also a fair amount of internationals. Our problems are mainly twofold - we lack quality in the depth of our squad and we're just not playing well as a team currently. A lot of it is poor defensively based tactics and some of it I put down to player confidence. We're a massive club going through tough times at the moment and it's been a couple of decades since we last won the league. However, we're still the most successful club in the UK, closely followed by Man Utd - the English equivalent of the Yankees. We have a huge amount of fans globally and sell more EPL shirts than any other team worldwide - with the names Torres and Gerrard topping that list. I class us as a sleeping giant - that needs the right owner. We don't want a sugar daddy a la Man City and Chelsea - those types of owners are pointless in 2012 anyway when "financial fair play" rules come into force. What a lot of us want is responsible owners who see us for the massive club we are, see us for our history and passion and put together a sensible business model. What that means is two things - maximising our marketing potential - that's been improving of late thanks to Ian Ayres but we really don't take advantage of our global pull. It also means investment - sensible, sustainable investment. We need new players without doubt and possibly a new team manager. We need a new stadium. We can fill a 44,000 seater stadium easily and could probably fill a 60,000 seater quite easily if the team performs well. What we want to see most of all though is some fight. That our players and owners are completely willing to fight for the cause. We can take poor results - that's part of the game - what we cannot abide is a lack of passion or effort and, most of all, being fed a string of lies by owners who seek nothing else but to gain personal profit on the back of raping and pillaging this great historic club for all it's worth. Owners are entitled to a return. That can be achieved through clever investment and better management and marketing of the club. But, most of all, a return will come by breathing competitiveness and, most of all, success back into our club.

I'm hoping the judgement is a step in the right direction anyway.

According to the article - the debt is serviceable - but what happens when the debt is to be called in ? Surely there's an end date for that?