Liverpool return to action on Sunday after three weeks when they host Manchester City in what is expected to be a red-hot Anfield atmosphere. It will be City's first fixture since the Premier League's independent Commission found them guilty of all but one of their charges relating to financial rules between 2009 and 2018.
City, who have since appealed, were found to have artificially inflated their commercial revenues by £830m during those years. The verdict, announced last Tuesday, has rocked the world of sport and forms the backdrop to one of the biggest scandals in British football history.
No Special Provisions for City Visit
Liverpool have made no special provisions for Sunday's match. The club has worked with key stakeholders in recent days as standard and believe it is well placed operationally to host the event as normal. The game has a pantomime element to it as City play for the first time since being found to have breached 114 of the Premier League's financial rules.
Following City's guilty verdict, the prospect of increased policing around the match had been raised, but Merseyside Police are not putting any special measures in place on the day itself as things stand. Anfield sources point to the club's long-established history of hosting major games across different competitions and do not anticipate anything out of the ordinary for a fixture of this magnitude.
Relief at Verdict
The mood around Liverpool was not celebratory when it was confirmed that City had been found guilty on September 29. The Reds may feel, with some justification, that their recent honours list would have been significantly embellished had City not brought in almost £900m in artificially inflated revenue during those years.
The 2013/14 season, for example, saw Brendan Rodgers's side finish second to Manuel Pellegrini's City, who beat the Reds on Boxing Day 2013 at the Etihad 2-1 before winning the league by two points. The Reds, then under Jurgen Klopp, also lost the Carabao Cup final on penalties to City in early 2016. The knock-on effect allowed City to build the Pep Guardiola squad that beat Klopp's team, 98 points to 97 in 2019, and then three years later, 93 points to 92.
Rather than anger or joy, it was relief that was said to have been the overriding emotion across the club when the news broke that City had "systematically broke Premier League Rules for nearly a decade," to quote chief executive Richard Masters. To many inside Anfield, the decision caused little shock. The only surprise was how robust some of the Premier League's language was in its redacted, 40-page core decision.
Silence is Golden
At the executive and ownership levels, Liverpool's key figures have always championed a staunch implementation of Financial Fair Play or similar regulations. Fenway Sports Group have made no secret of their desire to see that framework in place since taking ownership of the club sixteen years ago this month.
"The big question is just how effective the financial fair-play rules are going to be," Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry said in 2013, before adding rather prophetically: "Perhaps some clubs support the concept in order to limit the spending of other clubs, while implementing activities specifically designed to evade the rules they publicly support."
The Reds were one of four clubs who reserved the right to claim compensation in 2024 if City were found guilty, stemming from an investigation that began in 2023 following leaked emails by the German publication Der Spiegel in 2018. Alongside Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester United, Liverpool can now explore their options for potential compensation claims, with recent reports suggesting those damages may run as high as £100m.
The club first learned of the decision last month when the Premier League dispatched a communication to the executive level, which then needed a non-disclosure agreement to be signed before the information could be accessed. But the Reds, like the rest of the Premier League, are remaining tight-lipped publicly over City's fate as things stand. Staff members received guidance from the club's legal department earlier this week regarding the ongoing case, which is at the appeal stage for City. It's also understood that LFCTV was given instructions over what could and what shouldn't be spoken about on air.
It's thought that any public reference to the situation at the Etihad would be unhelpful from Liverpool's perspective at this stage, particularly given City's statement that spoke of their hope that the investigation had been "free from partisan influence" when reports of the guilty verdict first emerged last month. In that sense, Liverpool's silence, for now, is golden.
Forever Reds Lounge Opens
Liverpool opened a brand new lounge in honour of their Forever Reds group on Wednesday. Forever Reds, chaired by ECHO columnist John Aldridge, is the former players' association that seeks to help the club's alumni who may need assistance later in life. The group also extends its charity to wider organisations across the Merseyside area, including campaigns relating to Hillsborough and children's foundations and hospitals like Alder Hey.
The Wednesday morning get-together was an informal affair and carried a brief speech by Jonathan Bamber, the club's chief legal and external affairs officer. Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Steve McMahon, Ian Callaghan and Sammy Lee were also in attendance.
Aldridge told the ECHO: "I think there's been many times over the last 10 or 12 years that I've been chairman for now, it might even be longer, to where we are now, where we've come from, we are just raising money, being able to just raise money for people that need it in the Liverpool area. We originally started to raise money for our own players. But then you couldn't give it to them because it would become taxable. So, now the club has taken it all over.
"We now raise money, first and foremost, for the ex-players who need it. And then whatever's [left] over every year, we distribute it to the people that you've seen here today, you know. We're in a great situation with the help of many fans and people out there, including businesses - the golf day, the Christmas dinner, and the [charity] match in March, from which we get a percentage, along with the LFC Foundation.
"So it's a no-brainer, you know. Gerry Byrne, for instance, when he passed away, it was horrible. He had nothing [when he died] after what he had done for Liverpool FC. That's the prime example that really ate away at us. And now, it's better late than never, you know. We've been able to look after quite a few magnificent, brilliant players for Liverpool over the past. And we'll continue to do so."
