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The key players at the heart of the struggle to sell the club to John W Henry’s New England Sports Ventures group

Tom Hicks co-owner

The 63-year-old Texan businessman owns 50% of the club. The most unpopular and vocal of the co-owners whose son was removed from the board for sending a supporter an abusive email.

George Gillett co-owner

Has not coped well with the anger of fans directed towards him and his family and has had a fractious relationship with Hicks having reportedly been keen to sell his shares in 2008.

Martin Broughton chairman

A lifelong Chelsea fan and chairman of British Airways, Broughton was appointed as the club’s independent chairman in April this year with the task of overseeing the sale process.

Christian Purslow managing director

Harvard-educated, he replaced Rick Parry in June 2009 and together with Ian Ayre and Broughton, he outvoted Hicks and Gillett in favour of selling the club to John W Henry. The American co-owners tried to replace him on the board.

Ian Ayre commercial director

Appointed by the club’s former chief executive Rick Parry in 2007 he helped to seal a four-year sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered Bank and, like Purslow, he was one of the board members whom Hicks and Gillett tried to oust.

LiverpoolGregg Roughleyguardian.co.uk

• Sources confirm Kenneth Huang’s bid for the club
• Hicks and Gillett would make no profit from proposed deal

Sources have confirmed this morning that the Chinese businessman Kenneth Huang has offered to buy Liverpool’s £237m debt from the Royal Bank of Scotland in an attempt to end Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr’s control of the Premier League club.

Huang has made no announcement but has appointed a British media relations firm to represent him “in respect of his interest in Liverpool Football Club”. He was first linked to a takeover of the 18-time English champions two years ago, when he was put off by the £650m valuation. He is understood to value the club currently at around £350m.

Huang, chairman of the Hong Kong-based QSL Sports Group, has the backing of a wealthy investment fund behind him. “A deal has to be done before the transfer window closes,” a source close to Huang told the BBC. “Huang has made a firm proposal. The club’s board has to sanction the sale and it could be sewn up in days.”

But Gillett is said to have told RBS that he is in negotiations with the Syrian businessman and former international football Yahya Kirdi. According to the terms of the bank’s loan to Liverpool, they are obliged to listen to any bids that come through the American co-owners. Sources suggest the offer is unlikely to come to anything, and is being used in an attempt to prise more money from Huang.

Huang’s current offer for the club would see Hicks and Gillett fail to make any profit from the club, which they bought for £218.9m in February 2007. They expect to get £600m for the club now.

The Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, said last month he wants the uncertainty over the club’s future resolved as soon as possible, giving him time to bring in new players before the transfer window closes on 31 August. Should no bid be successful this summer, there is a possibility that RBS could call in a percentage of their loan in October, potentially pushing the club into administration.

LiverpoolSimon BurntonMatt Scottguardian.co.uk

• Roy Hodgson hopes Tom Hicks and George Gillett can sell up
• New manager admits change of owner could affect his position

Roy Hodgson has said it is imperative that Liverpool’s co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, sell the club this summer even though a takeover could affect his own position at Anfield.

The new Liverpool manager spoke to the Americans in a brief conference call on Wednesday night and, at his official unveiling the following day, promised to avoid the ownership issues that have blighted the club and the reign of his predecessor, Rafael Benítez, in recent years. Nevertheless, at a time when the Liverpool futures of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano are all uncertain, and with only limited funds available for squad rebuilding, Hodgson believes the prospects of recovery are inextricably linked to the timing of Hicks’s and Gillett’s departure.

Asked if he wanted the club to change hands at the earliest opportunity, the 62-year-old said: “Absolutely. That is what all the fans want. They want new ownership, maybe in the way Manchester City found new ownership. I don’t know whether that would be a possibility but I can understand the fans wanting that. The fans want the best for Liverpool Football Club. They want the best players and the best quality football, and they know the only way to get that is to have the quality of players on the pitch and they cost money.”

Hodgson admitted his arrival at Anfield was due, in part, to Liverpool’s £350m debt and the associated problems that have plagued the club since Hicks and Gillett arrived in February 2007. He added: “It’s very unusual to get the job at the club you want to be at if something is not there niggling in the background. Obviously the thing in the background here is the financial situation.

“The financial situation doesn’t bother me. This club will always find a buyer and there’s always going to be people who want to be the owner of Liverpool Football Club. It’s just a question of when it can be sold and whether the new owners, when they come in, are prepared to back the club as we all think it should be backed.”

Liverpool’s chairman, Martin Broughton, has confirmed there have been no offers for the club since Hicks and Gillett announced it was officially for sale in April, although he hopes to receive a first round of bids by mid-July and complete the sale before the end of August. A takeover would raise the prospect of the new owners wanting to appoint their own manager, but Hodgson is confident his work will dissuade such a move.

The Liverpool manager, who confirmed he is contractually protected “to some extent” if new owners decided they wanted a change, said: “You can’t ever get stone guarantees with these things. I believe that I was selected fommm,,,,r the right reasons and that if there are new owners they would go along with that as well. If they didn’t, and the new owners wanted a complete change, then I would have to accept that. It wouldn’t make a major dent in my career but it would be very sad because I want to work here.”

Hicks and Gillett remain the target of derision among Liverpool supporters and an “Independence Day Rally” will be held in the city tomorrow, organised by the Spirit of Shankly supporters group. The rally, at St George’s Hall from noon, features speeches from John Aldridge and the newly elected MP for Walton, Steve Rotheram, the comedian John Bishop plus several musicians, and the SOS will launch its proposal for supporters to buy into the club.

A spokesperson for SOS said: “This is our chance to send out a message that we want true independence, not only from Tom and George, but others who work the same way as they do. We no longer want leveraged buyout merchants with their eyes on the accounts, not the football pitch.”

LiverpoolRoy HodgsonBusinessAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk