By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
March 31 – Liverpool do not need to qualify for the Champions League in order to attract world-class players and rekindle past glories, their managing director Ian Ayre pledged today.
In an interview with insideworldfootball, Ayre admitted that revenues would inevitably be hit without the club being involved in Europe’s premier club competition but dismissed claims they would not be able to return to the elite as a result.
“There’s no hiding from the fact that if you don’t participate in European football then it is a big hit to your revenues,” said Ayre following an address to the Soccerex conference here.
“At the same time a football club like Liverpool is an institution that has been around for many, many years and commercially is significantly ahead of most of its competitors.
“Our revenues and the way we govern our business is absolutely geared to be able to survive and continue to prosper without European football but that’s not to say we don’t want it. You have to still move forward and you have to still invest.”
Five-time winners of Europe’s main club competition, Liverpool seem destined once again to play Europa League football next season – and may not even qualify for that if results go against them in the last few weeks of the season.
But, said Ayre, the club was still illustrious enough to attract top players from around the world, even though they have not the League since 1990 under Kenny Dalglish during his first spell as manager at the club.
“Any footballer in world football, if you did a straw poll of players and asked them if a team like Liverpool would be somebody they would want to play for, I think we would be right up there in the top three or four,” said Ayre.
The club, he said, were concentrating on a long-term climb back towards the elite status they enjoyed for the best part of three decades.
“It’s not just about this season or next season, it’s about Liverpool football club and what it represents to players and to the world of football,” he said.
“For players and sponsors we are in a different class and fortunate that we can underpin a downturn in success and use that platform to rebuild and come again.
“It’s not about winning once, it’s about getting back to winning on a consistent basis.
“It’s what the foundations of Liverpool were built on in the 60s, 70s and 1980s.
“Will that happen again overnight?
“Probably not but we will we create something that has a strong foundation and the ability to continue to prosper .”
Liverpool’s shirt sponsors also said they would not mind if the club failed to make the Champions League, simply because important markets like Asia do not watch European games live owing to the time difference.
“For us the Champions League is not that important because Asia is asleep,” said Gavin Laws, group head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered.
“The general way people watch European club football in Asia is they record it and watch it next day.
“The market where football is still under-developed is Asia, with huge populations.
“But unless you show games at a time when the public can see them, you miss a trick.
“That’s why the Premier League works so well there.”
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734868084labto1734868084ofdlr1734868084owedi1734868084sni@w1734868084ahsra1734868084w.wer1734868084dna1734868084