Jump to content

Liverpool purchase - to be funded - public lottery


elef

Recommended Posts

Liverpool purchase deal to be funded through public lottery

 

Published on May 18, 2004

 

 

BANGKOK, May 18 (AFP) - Thailand would hold a public lottery to fund the purchase of a 30 percent stake in Premier League side Liverpool, officials said Tuesday as premier Thaksin Shinawatra said he was close to clinching the deal.

 

Thaksin, a self-made billionaire who founded a telecommunications empire before entering politics, was initially expected to pay for the Liverpool stake out of his own pocket along with a consortium of investors.

 

But the government has subsequently said it will handle the financing, although no taxpayer money will be used.

 

Sports Authority of Thailand governor Santiparb Tejavanija said the cabinet had approved a scheme to fund the purchase through a special 10 billion baht (245 million dollar) lottery with a first-prize jackpot of 1.0 billion baht.

 

Half the funds raised will be spent on buying the Liverpool stake while the rest will go to prize money and administration costs. As well as a chance in the draw, participants will also receive Liverpool stock certificates, he said.

 

"The public will be offered first priority and then private companies, and we expect to go ahead in the next three months," Sanitparb said, adding that the scheme was dependent on Liverpool's green light.

 

"There are some issues that need to be resolved, the deal is not yet final," he told AFP.

 

Thaksin said he was confident the deal would be reached later this week, as the two sides had reached agreement on 60 percent of the purchase.

 

"Now 60 percent is comfortable, and there's still another 40 percent that we still have to discuss before we agree," he told reporters.

 

Thaksin said there were three or four minor points which required further talks and clarification before a resolution could be announced.

 

"In principle there shouldn't be any problem," he said. "We submitted the MOU (memorandum of understanding) to them and they countered with their draft to us and then we have to have further negotiation."

 

"Things should conclude this week," he said, adding he would send top government, sports and legal representatives to Britain on Wednesday to work out the details of the agreement.

 

Thaksin said he was pursuing other options in case the Liverpool deal fell through and he was confident that by next month Thailand would have bought into the Premier League.

 

"Last night Liverpool informed me over the progress made and I do hope that we won't have any problem, but if we cannot agree with Liverpool we still have alternatives," he said.

 

"It's likely that within June we will buy a share in the Premier League."

 

Officials said Monday that executives from other teams were taking part in meetings in Bangkok with the premier, but described them as "unofficial".

 

Liverpool fans largely oppose the bid by Thai premier, who made an unsuccessful play for Fulham last year.

 

Rights groups have also seized on his government's questionable human rights record, particularly a bloody "war on drugs" that left thousands dead, to argue the deal is inappropriate.

 

However, Thaksin's chances of success appeared to increase last week after Liverpool rebuffed a rival offer from local businessman Steve Morgan, a long-standing critic of the current board, worth some 128 million dollars.

 

 

 

The Nation

Link to comment
Share on other sites

deal to be funded through public lottery ...no taxpayer money will be used.

 

Around the world, the lottery is essentially a voluntary tax paid by the people who can least afford it. I just don't see how the people buying lottery tickets are going to benefit from the government getting a stake in Liverpool. Thaksin is asking the poor to fork out 10 billion baht for what? Seriously, I have to question the judgement here.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and i wonder if thailand has not a few more pressing things which could require some of that money. like, the hospital in my missus's village needs some money to give each of their 60 AIDS patients (and about three times more estimated who do not ask for medication) as a monthly disability rent. so far they have only been able to raise for a certain period about 300 baht a month from a politician's private purse for each patient. by far not enough for the patients who are alone and are too weak to either work or to gather food.

 

WTF does thailand need a stake in a british premier league club for other than trying to secure thaksin's reelection?

there are far cheaper, and far more effective ways to raise thailands level of football, such as hiring some good foreign trainers, buying in some african players, or lower ranked western players.

 

it's bullshit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest lazyphil

Not only is it bullshit it just bedrocks peoples opinions here as to LOS being a 3rd rate corrupt nothing country. The press are digging up and printing all sorts of dirt on the muslim/drugs war than Toxin has waged :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lazyphil said:

Not only is it bullshit it just bedrocks peoples opinions here as to LOS being a 3rd rate corrupt nothing country. The press are digging up and printing all sorts of dirt on the muslim/drugs war than Toxin has waged :(

 

 

well, yeah, rightly so.

i mean, does liverpool really want to be associated with a prime minister of a '3rd rate corrupt nothing country' who has a more than dubious record in terms of human rights?

 

but then who knows, i may not understand the basics of international finance, and all that is perfectly in order. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well, and i really wonder what a constitutional lawyer would say about the methods of raising those funds.

 

and thinking about it, how can he actually guarrantee liverpool that the lottery will raise enough funds, and in case not, who will jump in for the remainder, tax money - hardly, thaksin personally - that would be a contractual nightmare?

and looking at such a quick fix lottery, the opportunities for graft must be great.

 

personally, on this condition i can hardly imagine that liverpool will accept the proposal. i mean, it's like as if i wanna buy your house, but have to raise the funds in a casino, but obviously expect you to sign a contract before i raised those funds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed!

 

The Nation pretty well summed it up in an editorial:

 

"The government-initiated move to buy a sizeable stake in Liverpool Football Club started off as a crazy, impossible idea. However, the idea is about to become reality as Liverpool has signalled that it favours a Bt4.6-billion bid from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In Thailand, things have been turned upside down in the past three years, yet most people don't seem to have noticed. It's time to wake up. The attempt to buy a 30-per-cent stake in Liverpool violates economic reason and is an egregious misallocation of financial resources for a poor country like Thailand. We would be better off spending money to improve our education system or to develop youth sports programmes to offset the threat of drug abuse among the young.

 

A diplomat in Bangkok expressed bewilderment at the prime minister's ambitious desire to buy a foreign football club - a desire that would have triggered strong political reactions in other countries. Buying Liverpool has very little to do with the national interest and goes against the country's budgetary and national policy principles.

 

If the Liverpool investment goes through, Thaksin will need to explain why he thinks buying a foreign club would benefit Thailand more than, say, building sports facilities around the country or hiring qualified coaches to develop promising Thai players at all levels. In other words, if the Liverpool bid is to be portrayed as a sports-development policy, then what benefits will the Thai national team - which should be the government's first priority - see? When huge amounts of Thai money are being used to help Liverpool instead of the national team, then something must be seriously wrong. We have to agree with the assertion that the Liverpool deal is largely politically motivated. It represents another populist policy in disguise to boost the spirits of the Thai people. If you follow the news on how the government plans to finance the Liverpool deal, you see nothing but confusion. The other day, the government said the Ministry of Sports and Tourism would set up a company to own the Liverpool shares. Now it is saying the Finance Ministry will set up the company instead.

 

Considering the amount of money involved, how could the government allow the financial framework to change on an almost daily basis? At this point you will only need to spend Bt1,000 on a lottery ticket, an arrangement through which the government aims to raise Bt10 billion. After deducting the lottery prize of Bt3 billion, the government will still have more than enough money to spend on Liverpool. If the prime minister had opted to use private money from local businessmen or companies to acquire the Liverpool stake, the matter would have been considered private domain. There would have been no controversy. Few people have bothered to ask who will take responsibility if the Liverpool deal turns out to be a bad investment. Football might be big business, but it is also highly risky. The sport of football itself is losing money. Any financial gains come largely from broadcast rights and commercial endorsements. One wonders whether Thai investors are sophisticated enough to understand the nature of the football business. The outcome of this plan will probably not be as rosy as many expect. You only have to wait and see."

 

You can take the PM out of the private sector, but you can't take the private sector out of the PM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LIVERPOOL BID: Thaksin also facing grilling by senators; Anfield reluctance to give 2 board seats, full Asian licence rights

 

Published on May 19, 2004

 

 

The government's plan to acquire a 30-per-cent stake in Liverpool Football Club might fall foul of foreign-exchange regulations imposed by the Bank of Thailand, which would have to approve the transfer to Britain of about US$115 million (Bt4.7 billion).

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shina-watra, who claimed yesterday that the English Premier League club had agreed in principle to his bid, also faces other major stumbling blocks. The club appears reluctant to give him more than one seat on its board and total control of commercial rights in Asia.

 

A group of senators yesterday also declared its intention to grill Thaksin in Parliament over the deal, which has triggered controversy over budgetary and national policy principles, as well as charges that Thaksin's national and personal interests are becoming dangerously intertwined.

 

In Britain, Sports Minister Richard Caborn stepped into the Liverpool bidding war by declaring that football clubs have a fundamental duty to retain their links with the community.

 

If Thaksin manages to sort out his differences with Liverpool over his reported demand for two board seats and Asian commercial rights, he still has to figure out how to get such a large amount out of the country. That question alone could cause him a major legal and political headache.

 

A Bank of Thailand source said MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, the governor of the central bank, might be reluctant to approve a transaction of this magnitude in case he opens the door to later political ramifications.

 

The source said the governor might decide to scupper the transaction so as not to give the opposition any ammunition to use against him.

 

According to central-bank regulations, any investment of more than 10 per cent in a foreign firm is considered as direct investment. If the investment does not exceed $10 million a year, it can be executed without prior Bank of Thailand approval. If the investment exceeds this amount, the central bank must approve it.

 

Asked if the Bank of Thailand would deem the overseas investment as productive in considering whether to approve the foreign-exchange transaction, another central-bank official said the authorities would look at the impact of capital outflow and the foreign-exchange factor in reaching their judgement.

 

"We have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. But we have not yet been asked to consider the Liverpool deal," the official said.

 

However, a Finance Ministry official said the government could invest a large sum of money abroad without asking the central bank for permission.

 

He also said the government did not have to ask the Parliament to approve the Liverpool deal.

 

Another senior official at the Finance Ministry, who asked not to be named, said the government could write a clause in an executive decree for the setting up of a state enterprise to waive the central-bank rule.

 

If the Cabinet approved such an executive decree and the State Council agreed with the draft, the draft could be sent to His Majesty the King for endorsement. After that, the decree would become effective.

 

However, Somchainuk Engtrakul, permanent secretary for Finance, admitted yesterday that he was not sure if the government would need the central bank's approval for such a large transaction.

 

"Let's have a meeting. An answer could be found in two or three days," he said.

 

Sommai Phasee, deputy permanent secretary for Finance, earlier said the government had a right to buy anything it wanted abroad. He said the new state enterprise formed to acquire Liverpool would have the same entitlements as Thai Airways International, which can spend foreign exchange to buy aircraft from abroad.

 

The Cabinet yesterday approved the Liverpool bid and the method to finance it. The government proposed the setting up of a state enterprise to be funded by money raised from the issuance of a special lottery and private investment.

 

But with the Anfield board not willing to give up its marketing rights in Asia, it remains to be seen if Thaksin's private investors remain keen.

 

According to the Daily Post, a Liverpool newspaper, it is understood that Thaksin's offer is not acceptable in its current form and must be changed in order to gain approval from the Anfield hierarchy.

 

Chief among Liverpool's concerns is the issue of the club's commercial rights in Asia.

 

"Liverpool are unwilling to meet Thaksin's demands and relinquish control of those rights, which are set to become even more lucrative as Asia's economic fortunes improve," it said.

 

Government sources, meanwhile, admitted that Liverpool were willing to give Thailand only one board seat, while Thaksin wants two.

 

British sports minister Caborn appeared to be uneasy about the situation.

 

"Football clubs are a little bit special, they're part of the community," he told BBC Radio Five Live.

 

"So I think it's incumbent upon football clubs to make sure that they do have those very strong roots into their community.

 

"That's where the club comes from, that's where the fans are. I think that's what ought to be considered when any takeover bids, or indeed investment into these clubs, are being made."

 

Business, political desks

 

 

 

The Nation

Link to comment
Share on other sites

lazyphil said:

Not only is it bullshit it just bedrocks peoples opinions here as to LOS being a 3rd rate corrupt nothing country. The press are digging up and printing all sorts of dirt on the muslim/drugs war than Toxin has waged :(

Yep, most people in England knew little of Thaksin and his regime until this. Now pretty much all of them think he's a dubious crook. Way to go for publicity!

 

I'm a Liverpool fan and no Liverpool fan I know wants Thaksin's money. (Well, maybe just his money::) And if this went through and Thaksin ever came to Anfield, he'd get the piss taken out of him to an extent he'd never experienced before. Luckily for him, I suppose he could suppress any media coverage of that getting back to Thailand... But still - what do you think rival fans are going to chant? Thais might hear some things that'd upset them...

 

What does the man on the soi in Thailand think about all this then?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...