Liverpool FC Forum

by **Bruno Zidane!** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 7:49 am

Rick Parry spoke at Anfield on Thursday night to the Club's shareholders at the AGM and here is the full transcript of his business review of the last 12 months.
"It has certainly been an eventful twelve months.

In the spring the Board appointed Hawkpoint to advise on funding options.

Subsequently a number of parties have expressed interest in investing in the Club, including one that has approached us very recently (not, I hasten to add, via the Financial Times).

The Board is continuing to evaluate the proposals and is putting a great deal of time and care into this process. You can be sure we are fully committed to doing what we consider to be in the best long-term interest of the Club and its shareholders. The key is to find the right long term solution and not to be deflected by short-term considerations. As soon as we have an appropriate recommendation it will be put before you. Obviously there are significant confidentiality issues and commercial sensitivities and I'm sure you'll understand we are unable to say more at this stage.

Last year I told you we had invested in the squad to secure, at the very least, a return to the Champions League. I said that the key financial objective for the year was to control our net debt and we have done so.

Despite securing Champions League qualification, as you are all aware, the Board decided in May to part company with Gerard Houllier. A 30-point gap between us and Arsenal was too big and it was not acceptable to be out of the title race so early. We could not see how the necessary improvement would come without making a change but we did our best to handle Gerard's departure with dignity, recognising that we had some very good times during his 6-year tenure.

Appointing a new manager is always a challenge, especially for clubs where expectations are as high as they rightly are here.

We needed to find someone capable of taking us to the league title. There was never a debate about English or foreign - it was about ability. Our two key criteria as we began our selection process were:

i) a track record of success in one of Europe's top four leagues;

ii) anambition and hunger that matched our own. This pointed to someone young.

We were delighted that that Rafael Benitez wanted to join us. Having won the Spanish league not once but twice, he met the criteria perfectly. Le me also re-iterate that he was our number one choice. We got the man we wanted and we were not turned down by anyone.

Having had Rafa on board for 6 months, we are sure that we made the right decision.

There have been two great victories this week. Those of us that were at White Hart Lane last night were particularly proud to see us finish the game with seven Academy players on the pitch. And that's not a one-off as the youngsters had already done ever so well to take us through tricky ties against Millwall and Middlesbrough. It's an old adage that you don't know whether they'll be good enough unless you give them the chance to play.

The third major "event" of the summer, which delighted us all, was Steven Gerrard's decision to stay. To Steven's great credit this was never a financial issue - money was never mentioned. He simply wanted to be sure the Club was going in the right direction.

You will all be aware that we finally received planning permission for the new stadium in the summer. This was a culmination of years of effort on the part of the Club and the local community.

I told you last year that the ground share debate had been raised by the North West Development Agency. I explained that the project needs a substantial amount of public funding, not simply for the stadium, but for the refurbishment of Stanley Park, the cemetery and the surrounding environment. We submitted an application for funding of the Agency, along with the City Council, a year ago and unfortunately the position has still not been resolved. The Agency has, through its Chairman, adopted the position that it would prefer to see a shared stadium.

We have rejected a number of proposals and repeatedly statedthat the vast majority of our supporters are opposed to the idea. Now the Minister for Sport has become involved in an effort to resolve the position once and for all within an agreed timetable.

At the moment we are still pressing for our grant application to be considered. It is not possible to say what the outcome will be and the delays are frustrating. It cannot be denied that the public funding is a very important component but beyond that there is little to be gained by speculating on the ifs, buts and maybes."

Source Liverpoolfc.tv

by **JBG** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:44 am

There's already an active thread open on all of this.

Liverpool FC Forum

Agm meeting last night..... - Rick parrys speech in full

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