THE firm in charge of building Liverpool’s new Anfield Road Stand has filed for administration.
It comes just TWO DAYS before the Reds’ first Premier League home game of the season – which takes place against Bournemouth at 3pm on Saturday.
The weekend fixture was originally set to debut the new stand – which will increase the stadium’s capacity to 61,000.
But delays to the work – which is being carried out by a firm called Buckingham Group – has pushed the stand’s opening date back to mid-October.
Now there are concerns that could be delayed even further following reports of the company going into administration.
A statement from Buckingham Group said: “It is with immeasurable regret that the Buckingham Board has to announce that rapidly escalating contract losses and a sharp reduction in liquidity, together mean the Company is unable to continue trading at this
current time.”
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It goes on to put the financial troubles down to “a combination of unexpected impacts such as the extreme inflation linked to the Ukraine conflict and other challenges in the Sports and Leisure
division”.
The firm add: “Over several months and right up to this week, the Board has worked with specialist advisors to seek to bring
substantial new investment into the business that would have enabled the Company to continue trading as a
going concern without interruption.
“However, this initiative has ultimately met without success.”
Buckingham Group are also in charge of the development at Fulham’s ground Craven Cottage – which has already been majorly delayed.
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And it is the work on the West London club’s ground that is alleged to be the cause of the company filing a notice to appoint administrators.
Fulham have informed their fans that work on their Riverside Stand will not be finished until the 2024/25 season.
The new stand had been due to open in full this season.
A test event was held at Anfield on Tuesday to obtain the safety certification for the lower tier of Liverpool’s new stand.
But the upper tier will not be open to supporters on Saturday, meaning the maximum attendance for the game is around 51,000.
Work on the Anfield Road Stand began in September 2021 and the hope was it would be completed by the end of this season.
SD Samuels, the company in charge of the cladding for the stand, filed for administration back in December.
This is understood to be one reason for the delays.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
