Watching the recent Sky Sports interview with Tom Hicks, the first word that jumped into my mind after listening to the first two minutes was greed. Hicks talks about the poor results Liverpool CEO Rick Parry has achieved with sponsorships, in Asia, the stadium and how the team has fallen behind the other top clubs.

“We’ve got, still, the top brand, I think, in the world of football. We just don’t know how to commercialize it and get the money from it and use it to buy great players. It all goes together,” says Hicks.

Hicks’s focus isn’t just on generating more revenue to buy great players. It’s about making money for him. The new Anfield stadium at Stanley Park will be a large part of that, which is why Hicks is fighting to become the sole owner of Liverpool FC. He sees huge opportunities to increase revenue for the company, both at home and overseas (especially Asia).

After all, Hicks is a businessman with very little knowledge of football. In the interview below, he admits he didn’t know who Jurgen Klinsmann was and had to look his name up on the Internet to learn more. Get used to it. These are the type of tycoons that are becoming the owners of the modern football clubs.

Lastly, watch the video for ths staged scenes near the end where Hicks is wearing Liverpool paraphenalia as well as drinking from a Liverpool mug. His sons sit next to him in the sky box, both of them wearing Liverpool shirts. One of them visibly yawns. How fitting.

[display_podcast]