访谈录 2010-10-25&10-28 利物浦主席下台

Mr. Broughton is going to become chairman of a new firm called Sports Investment Partners, which will focus, as the name suggests, on investing tens and possibly hundreds of millions of pounds in sports-related businesses. Now Martin Broughton is going to step down as the chairman of Liverpool after a short transitional period to the new owners, and he'll be overseeing this new firm as its chairman. It will be run on a day-to-day basis by Martin Broughton's son Michael, who is a former senior executive from the sports industry, and Nick Couchman, the founder¹ and chairman of a specialist's sports law firm called Couchmans. Now this fund has been planned for some time but was essentially² put on whole while the future of Liverpool was being resolved. And I understand that they've already begun talking with potential investors³ about raising quite considerable sums of money to invest in the sports industry.
Yes, it's interesting, isn't it? It's the time when we are talking about saving cash and they are talking about spending. Are they confident they can actually raise those funds?
Well, I think they are. I mean between them they obviously have a very strong pedigree. I don't think there's doubt that Martin Broughton's reputation was in harm to ultimately buy the Liverpool takeover. It was a six-month auction⁴ which of course towards the end became mild in legal controversy⁵, but actually he ultimately did deliver what he was brought to the club to do which was to deliver a bluechip owner to Liverpool Football Club, and his son Michael, as I say, is a senior sponsorship executive as well. So I think that, as I understand, the conversations with prospective⁶ investors have already been progressing for some time, and they'll be looking at investing in areas like sports intellectual property, the betting and gaming industries and the support services related to sport as well. So I think there'll be some more interesting news emerging from this new firm over the coming months.

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

5 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

6 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。