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Reds' takeover negotiations going ''really badly''

Liverpool's owners have suffered a blow in their efforts to sell the club to a Kuwaiti investment consortium.

A spokesman for the consortium says the £500m value put on the club by American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett is too high and that negotiations are ''going really badly''.

Abdulla Al-Sager, one of the possible investors in the consortium headed by Kuwait's Al-Kharafi family, told Bloomberg: ''Things are going really badly, because they are asking for too much.

''I don't think anything will happen unless we get a better price.''

The consortium are now likely to play a waiting game until July when Hicks and Gillett have to see if they can refinance Liverpool's £300m debts.

If they cannot, then they may be forced to sell for a much lower price.

Liverpool have also been in talks about a sale with another investment group in the Middle East and one in the US. It is understood Hicks would ideally like to find an investment partner to buy Gillett's stake and allow him to remain in control.