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Liverpool director Tom Hicks Jnr sends fan abusive email
Relations between Liverpool fans and the club’s owners plumbed new depths on Saturday night after it emerged that Tom Hicks Jnr, a director at Anfield, had sent an obscene and abusive email to a supporter concerned over the side’s finances.
By Rory Smith
Published: 8:50PM GMT 09 Jan 2010
Liverpool director Tom Hicks Jnr sends fan abusive email
Kopped it: Liverpool director Tom Hicks Jnr has incurred the wrath of the fans after sending a strongly-worded email Photo: EPA
Hicks Jr first called the fan an “idiot†after receiving a message containing a newspaper article concerning the challenge facing the Liverpool manager, Rafael BenÃtez, to cope with the club’s £240 million debt while keeping the team competitive.
Just before 4am on Saturday in Texas (10am in England), where Hicks and his father, Tom, are based, Hicks sent an obscene, expletive-strewn second message, ending: “Go to hell. I’m sick of you.â€
Ian Ayre and Philip Nash, the club’s commercial and financial directors, were both copied in on the email but the club insist neither received it.
Sources close to Hicks Jnr said he regretted the incident and had apologised to the recipient of the email for using inappropriate language and friends on Saturday night described the Texan as being “mortified†by the “grave misunderstandingâ€. Hicks, along with other board members, regularly receives vitriolic emails from furious fans but he is unlikely to find much sympathy among the supporters.
Paul Rice, chairman of Spirit of Shankly, the club’s supporters’ union, said: “The comment is behaviour unbecoming of a director of Liverpool and as such Tom Hicks Jnr’s position is untenable.â€
The incident lays bare once more the tension between boardroom and stands at Anfield since Hicks senior and his business partner, George Gillett, bought the club almost three years ago. They remain £240 million in debt.
Christian Purslow, the club’s managing director, is seeking investors to take a 25 per cent stake in Liverpool for £100?million in a bid to provide capital to restart work on the new stadium.
That may come too late for BenÃtez, who can only spend what he can raise. The Spaniard’s £1.2 m capture of Maxi RodrÃguez, the Argentine winger, is likely to be just one of two acquisitions by the club this month.
