Liverpool foot £1.85m Hicks & Gillett bill

Liverpool FC’s co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett claimed back the best part of £2million on their own travel, legal and personal expenses, according to the club’s accounts for the year ending July 2008.

Since the American tycoons bought the club in February 2007, they have charged the club’s holding company, Kop Football Ltd, £1.85million in the first 18 months for amount incurred by themselves personally and ‘œaffiliated companies’.

According to the club’s accounts the expenses include ‘œthird party consulting, travel and other expenses’ and ‘œtransaction related expenses’.

The Guardian also reports this morning that not all the expenses had been repaid by July 2008.

Not all the expenses claimed had been paid by July 2008. The accounts state that of the £523,000 charged by Hicks and his affiliates, £188,000 was still owed, which meant he had been paid £335,000 by Liverpool. Of the £1.327m Gillett claimed for his expenses, £255,000 was outstanding, so Liverpool had paid him £1.072m.

James McKenna, a spokesman for Liverpool supporters group Spirit of Shankly, was further incenced by these latest figures saying, “Hicks and Gillett were the multimillionaires who promised not to do a Glazer and that work would start on the new stadium within 60 days.

“Yet now we find, as fans, not only are we paying for their takeover, but we are also paying for their costs of having done it, and, for coming over to visit the football club. They were supposed to bring investment to take the club forward, but it turns out we’re even paying their travel costs.”