Is Haaland the ‘last piece in the jigsaw puzzle’ for City’s UCL hopes?
The Daily Mail’s latest story claims Liverpool City Council’s UCL bid failed to convince UCL to turn over a single piece of land to help solve the club’s stadium issues.
Despite UCL’s desire to build on its site in Anfield, it’s claimed Liverpool’s bid was the only one that met the criteria for the land.
While there’s been no official denial from UCL, if accepted as truth, it would mean they have failed at three of their four priorities.
The three that remain are:
· A new training facility.
· The training facilities at Melwood
· The Anfield Stadium extension.
City’s first priority would cost around £30m, with UCL insisting Uefa’s strict rules would push them back with additional costs.
It would be UCL’s second priority, and the only one that they could realistically meet.
It could cost £20m for UCL to build a new training facility, with UCL wanting around 200,000 square metres to match the number of football pitches at the club’s training ground, Lytham St Annes.
For a new training ground, UCL would need to build the ground themselves. That will incur further construction costs.
They would need a new training track of around 500 metres long and 50 metres wide.
For the Melwood training pitches, UCL would be given 30m by Uefa, with them needing to build around 80 pitches.
City’s UCL bid at Melwood is estimated at £5m for 15 pitches. UCL have a good track record when it comes to building for the future.
The final UCL priority with regards to Anfield is the £300m Anfield stadium extension. UCL have previously said they would like to build a new stand for 50,000 fans, and a second stand for 30,000 – at around £80m