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<p>Imagine that you, as a fan, decided to drop your club an e-mail asking about potential signings. You wrote the e-mail in good faith and asked questions about the amount of money the manager had, would it be bolstered by additional monies raised by selling deadwood and the long term investment. You then copy an article from the Liverpool Echo arguing that Benitez shouldn’t have to manage the debts brought on to him.</p>
<p>Imagine your surprise to the receive a response to that e-mail from Tom Hicks Jr, who launches in to a foul mouthed tirade with the fan and invites him to <a href="http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/ff-football-forum/87419-thomas-o-hicks-junior.html" target="_blank">“Blow Me F@@@-face. I’m sick of you.” </a>The e-mail was also addressed to “Idiot”. This story broke on Saturday evening, but had been doing the rounds all day until the British media picked it up and ran with the story.</p>
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<p>Suddenly and shockingly, Liverpool fans had finally managed to pin down the arrogance that they have had to deal with over the last 34 months since Hicks and Gillett saddled the club with £350 million worth of debt. Cue all manner of critical articles began to appear and <a href="http://www.spiritofshankly.com/news/Tom-Hicks-Jnr-_-Resign-Now!.html" target="_blank">the Spirit of Shankly fans group</a> rode in to quite rightly demand that Tom Hicks Jr resign with immediate effect. They correctly pointed out that Hicks Jr’s position had now become untenable.</p>
<p>So this afternoon, he finally resigned with this statement by numbers: <strong><em>“I am very sorry for my harmful words. To the fans and club, please accept my sincerest apologies,I have great respect for Liverpool Football Club, especially the club’s supporters. I do not want my actions to take away from the club’s future, therefore I am resigning from the board.”</em></strong></p>
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<p>Now this for me makes things even worse, because he’d denied it for nearly 48 hours, so can anyone actually take a word he says as honest? He abused a fan, who made a valid query and then denied it calling the fan a liar. Only when the criticism became so vocal and major newspapers began to cover it did the story change to the truth. Yes, sometimes fans can give as much abuse but the e-mail was polite and simply wanted some points answering.</p>
<p>At no point did that justify Hicks Jr’s actions, which if anything simply smack of deluded arrogance. The spoutings of someone who has spent too long living in an ivory tower with nothing but disdain for the fans of the club his father and business partner have crippled with debts.I have a lot of sympathy with the fans over the way the club has been weighed down with so much negative equity.</p>
<p>Yet this mess has now come back to haunt <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlHMyp_jIyw" target="_blank">the Spirit of Shankly group as this footage of their end of season party has now surfaced.</a>Now at some point someone, somewhere has to get a grip of this situation. The last 48 hours were bad enough for Liverpool Football Club, but this video could complete unravel all the good work that S.O.S are doing to try and fight the Hicks and Gillett regime at Anfield.</p>
<p>If anything it’s all so depressing to see the same level of vitriol celebrated over something a hell of a lot more offensive than an e-mail from a silly little man. Celebrating the deaths of anyone is beyond reproach. Now is anyone from Spirit of Shankly going to make a statement or resign over this? Can Liverpool’s name be dragged through the mud anymore?</p>

Hicks And Gillett Regime Continues To Alienate Liverpool Fans

Hicks And Gillett Regime Continues To Alienate Liverpool Fans - World Soccer Talk

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<p>Is there a worse chairman in the history of the Premiership than Sulaiman Al-Fahim? I’m struggling to think of anyone who has misled, misinformed and treated the supporters of a club so clearly as Al-Fahim has in his 8 month relationship with Portsmouth. Today the HM Revenue &amp; Customs have issues a winding up order against Portsmouth F.C. which will see the club declared bankrupt unless all debts can be settled by February</p>
<p>Now, for me, the Premiership board have to take a long look at themselves over this situation. They allowed a man who clearly didn’t have the financial muscle to own a Premiership club to purchase it and then sell 90% within 6 weeks to Ali al-Faraj who promised to invest significant sums that have still to materialise. Where is all the money going at Portsmouth?</p>
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<p>So here we have a situation where the 2008 F.A. Cup winners are facing going under in 6 weeks. It is an absolute disgrace that this situation has come about and the club have just commented on this story, wholly denying the accusations but does anyone believe them anymore? The club are banned from signing anyone until the footballing debts are settled, the ground needs major redevelopment or a new ground and now the tax man has come knocking.</p>
<p>Going into administration would see them hit with a 10 point deduction immediately and would seal relegation for them. Selling players would leave them weaker than they currently are and it would seem highly unlikely that anyone can step in to bail them out financially. It’s a nightmare situation that has echoes of the crisis which engulfed the club in 1999 when Milan Mandaric rode to the rescue.</p>
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<p>Yet football has changed immeasurable in the ten years since that crisis. Administration now means a points deduction and yet, when al-Faraj bought his 90% of the club in October, the debt to the Inland Revenue was claimed to have been settled. It now seems that once again, it wasn’t true and with the amount supposedly £2 million, where did that go? The <a href="http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/LatestNews/news/PFC-Statement-433.aspx" target="_blank">statement from the club</a> claims that they’ve paid £9.7 million but the HMRC have still sought a winding up order. Who’s telling the truth here?</p>
<p>Mandaric has actually stated just before Christmas that <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leicester_city/8426001.stm" target="_blank">he wouldn’t be buying Portsmouth</a> back which would be bad news for anyone hoping to see him return to the Solent. Yet the club has been hemorrhaging money for the last 3 seasons, losing over £40 million up to the end of the 2007-2008 season. Since then, the club have sold over £80 million of talent, but still owe money to Chelsea, Watford&nbsp; and Rennes. The next allotted amount of TV revenue, which is £7 million could be diverted to those three clubs but it still wouldn’t cover all the outstanding monies.</p>
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<p>The monthly wage bill at Fratton Park is £1.8 million and the only other option is to sell playing assets to try and keep going, but the wages have bounced twice already this season and with everyone aware of Portsmouths situation, they will do well to receive an actual value for those players that matches what they need. All in all, it’s a dire situation and there seems no light at the end of the tunnel for Portsmouths long suffering fans. As always these days at Pompey, they are the last to know anything. I could do a better job than the current incumbents at Fratton Park and I suspect most Portsmouth fans could.</p>

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