Major development work at Anfield is on hold due to the uncertainty caused by contractors ceasing trading, Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan said on Wednesday.
The Buckingham Group announced last week it had filed a notice to appoint administrators and while administration has not yet taken place, all work has halted with the entire upper tier still to be completed.
Liverpool are in a “holding pattern” regarding the full reopening of the redeveloped Anfield Road Stand, after they started their campaign at reduced capacity. It means Jurgen Klopp’s side face the prospect of playing the Merseyside derby against Everton on Oct 21 without a full stadium.
It was initially anticipated the entire stand would be complete in time for last weekend’s Premier League fixture with Bournemouth. Liverpool requested the Premier League move their first match of the season to be away to extend the time available for completion.
Just the lower tier of the Anfield Road Stand was open, meaning capacity was reduced to 50,000 – a long way short of the 61,000 expected when it is fully operational.
Liverpool had previously announced there would be a phased opening of the £80 million upgrade due to delays in the work schedule.
“Effectively major work stopped on the site on Thursday morning,” Hogan told the club’s website.
“Timing, obviously, is incredibly fluid right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty around where we are and obviously in time that will become more clear.
“It’s important that we don’t want to set any false expectations.
“We are in a bit of a holding pattern right now based on the news that we got on Thursday and that needs to reach its conclusion before we can truly start to take the next steps.
“But if Buckingham does enter into administration then we’ll need to address any delays that may arise from completing the new stand as a result of that.
“Obviously we talked about having the stand fully open in October, clearly we have discussed the uncertainly that this announcement creates.
“We are still aiming for October but what we’re working through now is to put a plan in place.
“I know this is incredibly disappointing and frustrating.”
