Saudi investment will not be quick fix for Liverpool

(AP)

An associate of Saudi Arabia's Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Abdullah al-Saud claimed yesterday that the prince could bid for a major stake in Liverpool, but has concerns about the club's debt and the relationship between its owners.

The Liverpool co-owner George Gillett is due in Saudi Arabia next week to hold talks with the Saudi Royal. "His Highness's shareholding could go from anything from nought to 100 per cent," said Barry Didato, director of strategic investments for the prince's company F6. "But he cannot be seen as a solution to the debt or problems in the existing relationship between the owners. His Highness would not want to get involved in the [problems between the pair.] He is not a marriage counsellor."

Didato added: "The debt has to be at a manageable level before Prince Faisal would invest and the current level is high. He cannot be looked to as someone who is going to clean up the balance sheet – Gillett has to deal with this."

Gillett and co-owner Tom Hicks last week issued a joint statement, stressing that any talks to bring in new investment were "at an early stage" but discussing publicly for the first time the search for new equity partners.