Liverpool chairman in quit warning
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Michael Owen's Liverpool future is also in doubt unless they qualify for the Champions League.
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LIVERPOOL, England -- Liverpool chairman David Moores, whose family has been involved with the club for 50 years, might stand down if the Premiership club fails to qualify for the Champions League this season.
Moores flung his support behind beleaguered manager Gerard Houllier at a stormy annual general meeting on Monday night.
His comments came after Michael Owen's agent claimed the England striker might also leave if they did not qualify.
Houllier and the Liverpool board were subjected to a barrage of criticism from disgruntled shareholders at Anfield.
Liverpool are currently 20 points from the top and eight points from the relegation zone.
"I didn't expect an easy ride in this meeting because it's not been good enough for our club," said Moores, who owns a 51.6 percent stake in Liverpool and who has been chairman since 1991.
"But I still believe in the values of Gerard. Maybe, in time to come and if it gets any worse, I'll have to look at my own position because the buck stops with me, the chairman. If it means I have to dilute my shares or even sell to another Abramovich, I will," he said of Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich who bought Chelsea last July.
Chief executive Rick Parry declined to answer one questioner demanding to know the "non-financial implications" of non-qualification for the Champions League next May, implying Houllier's removal as manager.
"The reality is we are not sixth from bottom but sixth from top," said Parry, whose announcement of a 4 percent rise in the club's turnover to almost 102.5 million pounds and a pre-tax profit of 3.6 millions failed to please shareholders.
"We are firmly in the belief that we are going in the right direction. All being well, we'll be amongst those places (the top four qualifying places) come May."
Houllier, Liverpool's manager for five years, admitted the players he brought in the summer before last - El Hadji Diouf, Bruno Cheyrou and Salif Diao for a combined cost of 18 million pounds - had failed to make the expected impact.
"I'll hold my hands up in the knowledge that some of the recruits have not delivered," he said. "Some of the players brought into the club in 2002 have not shown what they can do and are not producing. But they, like the rest, are desperate to do well. We need patience. If we stick together we will come through this together.
"We want to keep the basis of the team together. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
"We need to improve the squad by bringing in outstanding players, like the four we bought this summer. I have no intention of bringing anyone in this January."
But Owen's agent Jon Holmes told Tuesday's edition of the Sun: "A crucial five months await Liverpool. Champions League football is very important to Michael.
"He is 24 and moving into his prime and needs to be playing at the very highest level of foootball."
Owen has 18 months left on his current Anfield contract. His entire professional career has been spent at Anfield after he graduated from Liverpool's junior team in 1996.
