Council Leader On Radio...

Louis · July 20, 2007

He said he though it was important to speak up now as there had been a lot of Chinese
whispers in the City about him and the Council not doing much to keep Everton in the city

- said he was passionate about this (keeping us in the city) not because he was an

Evertonian but also because Everton are one of the oldest, biggest commercial businesses

in the city and as they are trying to drive the local economy it would be daft for one of the

oldest and biggest commercial firms moving out

Sites they'd identified -

Liver Industrial Estate x2 at Aintree, thinks that a redevelopment could be done easily in

his opinion, his favourite is the Tunnel Trumpet site on Scotland Road - one of the

Council's commercial partners in the city are ready to open dialogue with the club over

that site and that it was important fans realise that the Council are working hard to keep

Everton in the city

If the fans vote for Kirkby would it be over -

didn't believe if the vote resulted in a yes that that was it, that the vote is to carry on

negotiations - hope is that Everton will open dialogue with the council and can retain

Everton in the city alongside Liverpool and ultimately wants to see 2 Premiership teams

still retained in Liverpool

On financing -

Can't pre-empt discussions about commercial deals that are done, about sitting round a

table and having dialogue and is confident a deal can be done to retain the club in the city

but there has to be a will there - he said there is a will from the commercial partners,

there is the will from the Council and honestly believes through having had informal

dialogue with the club that there is a will there will there to keep Everton in the city - if

that is so they should get round the table and keep Everton in the city where they belong.

Exclusivity period

No formal dialogue due to exclusivity deal as it's a legal lock out agreement - thinks time

has come to lift that so they can let the city council, himself with the football club and the

commercial partners (who have actively come forward, a point he stressed) sit down to

have a proper dialogue over keeping Everton in the city and he's supremely confident if

that happened Everton would be retained in the city

On a encouraging a no vote -

Said the KEIOC campaign is right and proper to campaign to keep Everton in their rightful

place in the city - his analogy is that if his son's fortunate to have children will his

(Warren's) grandchildren support Liverpool because they're the only club actually based in

the city of Liverpool, didn't to see that wanted to see Everton and Liverpool supporters

come out of the city for the long term and not the short term and he wants to retain

Everton in the city hence the statement today.

On being asked about fan criticism and if he felt "let down by the club" -

not let down by the club, club decided for commercial reasons to open discussions with

Knowsley and it was the club's perogative to talk to Knowsley - had 6-8 months of

exclusivity, been trying to work through that to identify site and they've got a canvas now

in 3 or 4 locations in the city that CAN be delivered, hopes that Everton decide now to

come to the table the council and with commercial partners that want to be involved for

the good of Everton football club

1st aim when the exclusivity period ends is to meet with the club and see where they can

go from there - does believe they can can bring another world class stadium to the city,

that Liverpool's stadium will be a world class stadium with 300 million pounds put into it,

and he wants to see investors back Everton to the same amount of money and build two

stadia that are fit for the 21st century.