Yes, you guessed it, despite the denials, the rumours emanating from those in the know is that DIC is still very much in the frame of acquiring a sizeable portion of Liverpool football club.
Last night the Liverpool owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks appeared to deny all the rumours of them selling up after a year and making a ton of money in the process. Appeared, because as denials go, it was hardly the strongest of rebuttals. Indeed, it was anything but, with a curt two/three line statement that was issued by one of their spokesman. Although, giving any more airtime to Tom Hicks would probably have made the situation ten times worse given his recent forays into the media.
Moreover, the silence from Gillett has been telling as the situation continues to drag on. Will he be as silent as he becomes the focus of the latest rumours, only time will tell.
Furthermore, the unrest within Anfield's boardrooms looks set to continue even if Hicks and Gillett see through the period of unrest and secure a new loan to replace the loan they took out last year. Despite the denials last night, the rumour-mill continues to churn, with the latest being Gillett could seek to buy out his partner with the help of DIC.
Of course they are not the only rumour mill alluding to such things.
What cannot be denied is that as the clock ticks down to the expiry date of their initial loan, Gillett and Hicks must restructure their finance in order to facilitate the nwe stadium and the previous year's transfers. If they manage to bridge that gap, then they can turn their attentions to the issues that have blighted their ownership thus far, with DIC becoming increasingly prominent.
Whatever the outcome, one thing is assured, after bids last January and a specualtive enquiry in November, DIC will not go away.
Such has been the sheer volume of rumours regarding Liverpool's ownership over the past few days that they have even been heard as far as America, because they have issued a statement denying all the rumours of a sale to DIC:
"Any suggestion Hicks and Gillett are contemplating a sale of the club or any portion of it is categorically untrue."
Unfortunately words will not silence the whispers. Indeed the only thing that can silence them are when they manage to see through the expiry date of their initial loan took out last year to finance their acquistion of Liverpool football club.
According to the Telegraph, such a deal is almost in place:
"According to City sources, a £350 million deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland and American investment bank Wachovia could be announced early next week. It is understood lawyers for both sides are now working through the fine print of the funding package which, if confirmed, will come six weeks before an existing one-year loan used to finance the American takeover expires. Once concluded the Americans hope the deal will restore a sense of calm to Anfield after a period of extraordinary instability."
"It is understood that senior executives at the Dubai-based international investment company were given the go-ahead by Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum to launch a second bid to buy into Liverpool in a year. An offer has been agreed in principle."
Is this the end for DIC? As the old saying going theres no smoke without fire.
I came across Reuters Top 100 News Photos of 2007, which makes for some interesting images, not sure they tell the story of the past 12 months. However, one thing that defiantly struck a chord were these two images, one was taken that show villagers in Thailand boiling rats to make ends meet:
whilst this shows a woman at the Tiara Beach Resort, in a swimming pool with 20,000 apples in an attempt to set the national record for the most number of apples used in spa therapy!
It's interesting that whilst some of the world goes hungry and cannot feed itself, in other parts of the world food is used to set mind-boggling inane records!
Of course Dubai makes a feature within the top 100 too, which features the now famous Ice Bar in Dubai, which we first chronicled months ago:
It will almost be a year now when a fruitful relationship between Liverpool and DIC was scuppered in a moment of madness. Then Liverpool and DIC pulled the plug on what should have been a fruitful relationship benefiting both parties. The straw that broke the camels back was that Liverpool took umbrage at a widely circulated internal report by DIC on an exit strategy (what did they expect investors to do, blindly invest and then not sell up for a profit?) and DIC felt that they had no choice but to withdraw from the process once the Liverpool board started to consider the last minute bid put together by George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
Liverpool eventually took the American Dollar rather than the Dubai Dhiram and have since sailed into further controversy, so much so that rumours are once again circulating that DIC could come in and buy the American duo out. Whether this is plain fanciful rumour-mongering on behalf of staunch Liverpool fans within the Arabian peninsula or further afield, what can be in no question is the new owners are in precarious financial position that you would not dare to think of barely a few months ago.
So where did it all go wrong?
To matters on the field and to recent events. When Gillett and Hicks came in it was seen as a a necessary evil because the outgoing chairman David Moores, could no longer fund the expenses that Liverpool required to compete with the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea. This included transfer funds and a new stadium (more of this later). It is important to bear this in mind when you come to coach Rafa Benitez's petulant behaviour in November. Whatever assurances he had been given they seemed to mean nothing now, with transfer funds limited. Moreover, it would also seem that Benitez was aware that discussions had already taken place between the American owners and Klinsmann should Liverpool fail to make the knock-out stages of the Champions League. An astonishing turn of events given Rafa's credentials and record at Anfield.
Funds it would appear only to stretch to one big signing a year. For the record Rafa has spent £49m on new players the bulk of which has been spent on Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel, the only two players he spent in excess of £10m to acquire, recouping £21m in the process. Compare and contrast this with Manchester United who in their championship winning season spent £66m on new players including four players that were valued over £10m and recouped only £26m.
And what of the new stadium? When Hicks and Gillett first tore up the old, old plans of New Anfield they produced a glittering new design. However, they have had to embarrassingly go back on their own designs because of spiralling cost. A amazing u-turn given that it has always been the cornerstone to their investment and generating revenue.
So why have things begin to change so significantly? Three simple words it would seam to have hit the American duo. Global. Credit. Crunch. The US businessmen's purchase of Liverpool was funded solely by borrowed money. The pair's loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland has grown to £350million. At the time of the acquisition George Gillett trumpeted "We have purchased the club with no debt on the club."
How things change. Now the RBS loan is due for repayment next month, and most sources conclude that their attempts to restructure it have so far failed, with the burden of debt being shifted onto the club. RBS have asked Hicks and Gillett each to commit £20m of their own cash to the deal, but City sources believe that at least one of the two businessmen is not prepared to do so.
In the week that Manchester United announced themselves as the second richest club in the world it is worth noting that of the £60m clear profit the Glazers have made, £69m will have to be repaid in interest to the debt that financed their acquisition!
Worse still, is if DIC do not bail out the reds (and why should they), and the American duo cannot repackage the loan, RBS effectively would own Liverpool Football Club. Meanwhile, DIC hovers, waiting to pounce!
The photo below is the first aerial shot of the progress of "The World Islands" development in Dubai.
For those who may not know or have been living in a bubble for the last few years, The World is a development of 300 manmade islands built off the coast of Dubai. It's purpose to create a map of the world in the form of manmade islands. The only way to get to and from the islands will be by boat or air as there will be no roads leading to the islands, the ultimate in privacy.
The cost of the islands average between $15-$50 million, but the most expensive costs around $250 million, and if you want to buy one you must be invited to do so, amongst the owners of islands already sold is Sir Richard Branson, who has staked his claim to the UK in 2006.
To find out more general information about the world the video below is great.
You got to hand it to Dubaians. Most people who fall in love on their travels abroad tend to just get the odd souvenir. Indeed, some go as far as moving to the places they love. However, businessman Saeed Al Gandhi decided that he'd do the next best thing, a build a homage to the city he loves.
The city in question is Lyon in France, and Al Gandhi "is due to sign a draft deal for the 500 million euro project", which will see plans to faithfully reconstruct the French city of Lyon, right down to its cafes, cinemas and schools.
All the original Lyon’s gastronomic, cultural, sporting and economic institutions will be painstakingly replicated.
"The city will be organised on European lines so that in a bistrot there you will find the same atmosphere as in a bistrot in Lyon,” said urban specialist Jean-Paul Lebas, who is working on the project.
You've got to hand it to Dubai and thier people, they don't do things in half measures.
Dubai heralded the new year as only it knows how to, by trying to outdo everyone on planet earth. It was no good to them just ushering in the new year.... oh no, it had to be the biggest and best spectacular that anyone has ever seen.
Their attempt was to break the world record for a fireworks display.
Grucci, the fireworks company that created displays at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, was hired by organizers to create the world's largest fireworks display -reaching as high as 1,000 feet reports UPI.
Not sure whether they did or not. Anyway that is besides the point, the point is that Dubai only know one way to do things and that is in the stakes of oneupmaship! For if they have anything to do with it then you can betcha bottom dhiram that they intend to be as lavish and luxurious as possible. "We want to make Dubai famous worldwide like it has never been before," one of the organizers said. No kidding!
You can find more pictures on Xpress, but I particularly liked this one above.
There is a television channel in the UK that has several themed logos, which sees it making the number four (y'see it's called channel four, geddit?) from all kinds of angles. It's quite clever.
One of the inspirations is based on Dubai itself, namely the construction cranes that litter the Emirate state today. Can you spot the number four (clue, its around the 32 second mark!)?
I have to admit that I love stories like this. The Natural History Museum has been appointed by the rulers of Dubai to help to build a Jurassic Park style Dubai Open Theme Park.
Named Restless Planet and inspired obviously by the film, which starred Sam Neill, Sir Richard Attenborough and Laura Dern amongst others and whose eventual plot had them all fleeing in terror as the dinosaurs took over the Island. The only thing is the dinosaurs this time will be robotic so they say.
Of course I assume that this is not in their plans, but the story does go to show the imagination and scope within the emirate state at the moment. Nothing is considered impossible or fanciful and as such if anywhere in the world there is going to be a state of the art theme park with life like dinosaurs then you can betcha bottom Dhiram that it will be in Dubai.
I’m only surprised that they've not opened Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Okay I digress, but by the sounds of it the theme park should be quite mind blowing, just look at some of the features:
"Visitors will be able to walk close to the dinosaurs, whose intelligent technology will allow them to roam freely. They will be able to respond to the environment around them, for example snapping their necks round at sudden movements made by visitors or lurching at people wearing red shirts."
As the video below describes it's truly Fantasmagorical.
The link to the official project page can be found here
