LFC in limbo over extension of Anfield Road stand after contractor ceased trading

Liverpool FC said it is in limbo regarding the completion of its £80m Anfield Road stand extension.

A week ago (August 17) main contractor, Buckingham Group, announced it was filing a Notice of Intention to appoint administrators, and that it had ceased trading.

Work stopped immediately on the stand, which will add an extra 7,000 seats and take the ground’s capacity to 61,000.

Original plans to unveil the new stand in time for last Saturday’s first home game of the season against Bournemouth were foiled last month when the club said delays meant only the lower tier would be able to open. It was aiming for a phased opening culminating in an October completion of the work.

But with progress now at a standstill, Liverpool FC chief executive, Billy Hogan, admitted a huge amount of uncertainty now exists regarding the stand extension. He confirmed that, for the foreseeable future, the club will only be able to accommodate fans in the lower tier, limiting the overall capacity to around 50,000, which is expected to cost the club millions in lost revenues.

He said: “Effectively, major work stopped on the site on Thursday morning after the announcement so clearly that impacts all of our planning.

“Timing, obviously, is incredibly fluid right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty around where we are and obviously in time that will become more clear.

“It’s important that we don’t want to set any false expectations. We will continue to provide updates as we have them and we will be able to provide more clarity over the coming weeks on the timescales to complete the project.

“Just to speak plainly, we are in a bit of a holding pattern right now based on the news that we got on Thursday and that needs to reach its conclusion before we can truly start to take the next steps. But if Buckingham does enter into administration then we’ll need to address any delays that may arise from completing the new stand as a result of that.”

He added: “Obviously we will, of course, work with Buckingham and any other contractors who may be appointed in the future to retain as many of the existing jobs and expertise which have been a part of the project all along. So, I guess to be clear, everyone, myself included, is looking forward to getting the stand completed and fully open, but we are doing everything that we possibly can to make sure that happens and that also means working with a multitude of stakeholders behind the scenes effectively over the course of the last several days and we will continue to do that, just to make sure that we have the right expertise to get the stand completed, get it opened safely and professionally and that is ultimately our priority.”

Regarding future fixtures he said: “Obviously we talked about having the stand fully open in October, clearly we have discussed the uncertainly that this announcement creates. We are still aiming for October but what we’re working through now is to put a plan in place.”

He said work is going on in the background to ensure as little impact on timelines as possible, adding: “I don’t want to set false expectations but we do have to have, obviously, a schedule that we need to work towards. It’s hard to set that schedule based on what is happening immediately, but we are working through it having digested the announcement on Thursday and working over the course of the last several days and then any subsequent administration of Buckingham and what that means with regards to our contract with them and then the strategy and programme that we put forward.”

And he said: “I would just like to ask that everyone please bears with us as we work through these issues. We’re really disappointed with the news that we received last week and since that moment I can assure you that internally we have been working as hard as possible to get everything as well as possible planned for whatever the eventuality might be.

“We are in a bit of the unknown right now so we certainly are sorry for any inconvenience that this delay has had on people, we recognise that it hasn’t been easy for our supporters as well.

“But please be assured that we are doing everything we can, as I said, in the background. I know there are frustrations, we share them, which is why we have got a great team of people here at the club working on solutions.”