Saudi prince in talks to buy share of Liverpool FC

A Saudi prince is negotiating to buy a stake in Liverpool Football Club, his office said on Sunday, in a deal the media said could be worth as much as 350 million pounds (559 million dollars).

Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah, a businessman based in Al-Khobar in eastern Saudi Arabia, is currently discussing the deal with the owners of Liverpool, Azhari Kowa, a spokesman for the prince’s Fama Group, told AFP.

“Prince Faisal is in London now discussing the purchase,” Kowa said, without elaborating.

Al-Riyadh newspaper reported earlier on Sunday that the prince was negotiating with the heavily-indebted English club’s US owners for a 50-percent stake.

“It is going to be finalised soon. It will cost us 200 to 350 million pounds (319-559 million dollars),” he said, according to Al-Riyadh.

Prince Faisal told the paper that Liverpool was saddled with 245 million pounds (391 million dollars) in debt.

Kowa said that the prince has signed a memorandum of understanding on Saturday with Liverpool on setting up football academies in Saudi Arabia and North Africa.

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks insisted in February 2008 that he was not planning to sell his stake in the club, at the time knocking down newspaper reports in Britain.

Hicks owns 50-percent of Liverpool with the other half of the club’s shares controlled by his American business partner George Gillett, amid reports the two have fallen out.

The American owners in the summer renegotiated the club’s debt with the Royal Bank of Scotland, believed to be 290 million pounds, and have extended it for another year.