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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Keifer MacDonald

Incredible footage shows moment Anfield Road roof is removed as £80m project takes next step

The process of removing the old Anfield Road End roof has begun with the £80m redevelopment entering the next stage ahead of its opening in August.

The stadium redevelopment, which will add a further 7,000 seats and increase the ground's capacity to over 61,000, is the third such major scheme of Fenway Sports Group's 13-year tenure on Merseyside and follows the building of a new Main Stand in 2016 and the AXA Training Centre in 2020.

Now, 20 months on from Reds manager Jurgen Klopp providing a ground-breaking dig at the site in September 2021, the development has reached its final stages with new footage from KC Imageworks capturing the stand's current roof being cut in half and later removed by two crawler cranes that have been carefully assembled on the Anfield turf.

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Later in the video, the left side of the roof is eventually removed and lifted carefully onto the turf, where specialist protective equipment has been placed, after numerous testing at the club's training centre on identical pitches, to avoid any long-lasting damage.

Following Liverpool's final game of the season against Aston Villa on May 20, a four-week slot was designated for the process to be completed ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League campaign.

However, as was the case with the opening of the Main Stand in 2016, the Reds have made a request to the Premier League for their first game of the new season to be scheduled away from home in order for the grand opening of the additional 7,000-seater stand to be fine-turned ahead of its first welcoming of supporters in late August 2023.

Explaining the rationale behind the decision to the ECHO earlier this month, Paul Cuttill, vice president of stadium operations at Liverpool Football Club, said: "We get asked each year and we've put in a request for our first game of the season to be away from home.

"We haven't had that confirmed yet by the Premier League, I must stress. However, if it is confirmed, we're looking at around August 19 for our first home game of the new season to be played here with the Anfield Road stand open, brand new.

"We're on time and we're on budget. It's been an incredibly challenging time to get to this point and we've got a four-week window after our last home game when we remove the roof and that is going to be the next big milestone. We need to hit that to kick on and make sure we're on track to be ready in time for the start of the 23/24 season."

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