Liverpool give Benitez their backing

Rafael Benitez has been assured he will not be sacked as Liverpool manager after the five-times European champions exited the Champions League at the group stage on Tuesday.

Liverpool’s managing director, Christian Purslow, told the British media that the club’s failure to qualify for the last 16 for the first time in five-and-a-half years under their Spanish manager had “no bearing on Rafa whatsoever”.

Although Liverpool beat Debrecen 1-0 in Budapest they needed Fiorentina to drop points at home to Lyon in order to advance. But the Italian side won 1-0.

Now Liverpool, currently five points adrift of a top four finish in the English Premier League that will secure Champions League football next season, must play in the second tier Europa League.

But even though their Anfield ground, with a capacity of 45,362, is significantly smaller than those of other leading English teams such as champions Manchester United (75,000) and Arsenal (60,000), Purslow denied demotion from European football’s most lucrative tournament would damage the club’s finances or imperil Benitez’s position.

“This has no bearing on Rafa whatsoever,” Purslow said. “He only signed a new five-year deal eight months ago and in those terms he is four months into a five-year journey. You don’t deviate from long-term plans for people.

“We budget for a level of performance where, let’s just say, as football fans is not where we would all want to be. We are prudent in what we budget.

“If we go into the Europa League and have three home games, we are financially equivalent on what we budgeted to achieve in the Champions League.

“Obviously, it feels terribly disappointing, but we could have gone into the next round of the Champions League, played one home leg, one away leg and been out,” Purslow added.

“I like to think we’ll be taking 40 or 50,000 to Hamburg in May (for the Europa League final), and if we get half-way to doing that, we will make more money than we would have from the next round of the Champions League.

“It’s a missed opportunity financially, but it has no effect on budgeted performance and that’s the key thing.”