New Liverpool owner John W. Henry has promised not to load any of his 'acquisition costs' on the club, but has not given any formal guarantees.
Henry's NESV group purchased Liverpool in September, taking over from Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who of course promised when their own takeover was complete not to place any of their own personal debt on the club.
The Guardian reports that, while Henry gave chairman Martin Broughton assurances, it was decided that 'such a commitment would not be strictly legally enforceable', and was therefore not given in writing.
However, Henry did state that the majority of the debt from the Hicks/Gillett era had been paid off. The only money the club now owes is £37million to RBS for the cost of development work for their proposed new stadium.
"The simplest thing to say is that we removed all debt but the stadium debt," Henry said.
"LFC is not servicing debt other than stadium debt."
Henry did also promise not to use club finances for interest payments on any debt they may have, just as Hicks and Gillett did. However, they eventually did take many millions from the club to pay interest on their loans.
Henry also refused to disclose how his takeover was funded. In an e-mail to The Guardian, he wrote:
"I have certain obligations to my partners regarding confidentiality of a private company and in not disclosing our financials publicly.
"LFC discloses its financials annually, so monies going in and going out are disclosed. But I'm not going to disclose NESV financials or financing information."
