Liverpool's Owners Refuse to Sit Together

Liverpool's feuding owners, George Gillett and Tom Hicks, have offered another illustration of their fractured relationship by asking to be kept apart at tomorrow's Champions League quarter-final away to Arsenal.

Neither of Liverpool's co-chairmen was present at Anfield for the Merseyside derby against Everton on Sunday and neither has attended a game since the defeat by Manchester United on December 16, when they were required at the club to resolve their differences with the manager Rafael Benítez, but both intend to be at the Emirates Stadium.

Hicks is understood to have taken half Liverpool's allocation of 20 seats for the directors' box, and Gillett, who on Friday claimed his business partner was entirely responsible for the criticism directed at their regime, has requested four. However, the two men are not prepared to sit together and present a show of unity that does not exist.

Gillett admitted in an interview last week that his business relationship with Hicks had been unworkable "for some time" and that death threats towards his family had prevented him from allowing the Texan to take majority control at Anfield. The Liverpool co-chairmen are currently seeking new backers that would enable them to bid for the other's 50% stake and Dubai International Capital still hopes to strike a deal with Gillett that would lead to an offer for outright control of the club.

Despite the Americans' presence in London and the possibility that Amanda Staveley, of DIC's advisors PCP Capital Partners, may also be at the game, no meeting is scheduled to discuss the future ownership of the club.

Hicks vetoed the possible sale of 49% of Gillett's stake to DIC more than two weeks' ago, although Gillett has not agreed a price for his holding with the investment arm of the Dubai government.