Liverpool fans crash website

A website set up in order to appeal to overseas fans who want to get involved in a scheme to buy Liverpool football club has been suspended.

A message on the www.shareliverpoolfc.co.uk website simply says that the site has been suspended, presumably due to exceeding bandwidth restrictions as a high volume of fans attempt to access it.

The group, calling itself Share Liverpool FC, is hoping to attract fans from all over the world to their scheme to raise £500m to buy the club and build a new stadium.

The man behind the scheme, Rogan Taylor, is director of the Football Industry Group at the University of Liverpool and wants the club to be more like Barcelona, which is owned by a group of fans.

In the UK, Ebbsfleet United FC was recently taken over by the website MyFootballClub.co.uk, a group consisting of members of the public who paid £35 to join the scheme.

Orange has predicted in its upcoming Future of Football 2008 report that more clubs would be owned by consortia of fans in years to come.

Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks currently own Liverpool FC, having bought it last year, but there were rumours recently that a Middle Eastern consortium were about to take over.

Liverpool, who were beaten 1-0 last night by West Ham, also look to be all but out of the Premier League title race and could struggle to qualify for next year's Champions League if their form doesn't pick up soon.

Before the site crashed, a message from Rogan Taylor read: "Personally, I would like to thank in advance all Liverpool fans who send us their views and contact details. We all know that, together, we are the heart and soul of Liverpool FC. Why shouldn't we also be its collective owners?"

www.shareliverpoolfc.co.uk
www.myfootballclub.co.uk
www.orange.co.uk