Liverpool CEO confirms new timeline for Anfield Road End development
- Liverpool were forced to operate at a reduced capacity for their 3-1 win over Bournemouth
- The group managing the development of the stand have filed for administration
- CEO Billy Hogan admits plans for further delays are being made
By Tom Gott
Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan has stressed that the club remain hopeful of completing the Anfield Road End redevelopment by October despite the build’s contractor, Buckingham Group, filing for administration.
The £80m project was put on hold last month when workers and sub-contractors were locked out amid uncertainty over Buckingham Group's ability to continue funding the redevelopment of the famous stand.
As a result, Liverpool were forced to operate at a reduced capacity for their first home game of the season, last weekend's 3-1 win over Bournemouth, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Aston Villa are due at Anfield on 3 September and Hogan confirmed the stadium will only be partly open for that fixture.
"Based on the current situation, we will run the Villa game exactly the same as we did against Bournemouth," Hogan told club media. "The capacity will be around the same, so about 50,000.
"Obviously without the second tier on Anfield Road that does have an impact on the overall capacity so just the lower tier will be open and we are working through the same programmes to manage the match as we did and obviously at the same time, as I said there is a lot of work going on in the background to manage the long-term plan to complete the stand.
"And effectively by having that reduced capacity for the Villa game, that will mean some reductions in allocations across the stadium but we’re really working and looking to make the impact minimal: [we will] still be able to accommodate all season ticket holders and those with 13+ credits as we did for the Bournemouth game. We will be updating supporters with all the details of the Aston Villa game over the course of this week so look out for more information coming out from the club in the days ahead."
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Asked for a general update on the status of the redevelopment, Hogan explained: "So 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
"To be clear, our intention was to have the stand open for Bournemouth and we realised in the weeks and months leading up to it that, as timelines started to slip, that we weren’t going to make Bournemouth, which is why we put that announcement out last month about where we were with regard to the phased opening and at that time, we identified that it was going to be a phased opening over the first couple of matches of the season. So, that’s still our intention.
"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. As I said, [there is] an unbelievable amount of work going on in the background, literally since we were made aware of Buckingham’s intentions, to make sure that we have as little impact on that timeline as possible. So, again, 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."
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