Prince Andrew’s ex eyes up Anfield crown for Sheikh Mohammed

A glamorous former English businesswoman of the year has emerged as the face of Dubai International Capital's £400m bid for Liverpool Football Club. The 34-year-old Amanda Staveley (pictured), who reportedly once turned down a proposal of marriage from the Duke of York, hopes to become Queen of Anfield.

Staveley is the senior partner at PCP Capital Partners, who are leading negotiations on behalf of the Dubai group with the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jnr. If the bid is successful, the Yorkshire-born Cambridge graduate will be made a director of Liverpool FC and become one of the most high-profile women in English football.

Staveley is seen as the right-hand woman of DIC owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai (pictured centre). According to the Times, her instructions from Sheikh Mohammed were simply to "get it done".

The pair are believed to have met in the mid-Nineties through a mutual love of racing. Sheikh Mohammed owns the racing outfit Godolphin. A business associate of Staveley's said: "It would be fair to say that there is no non-Arab that he trusts as much as he trusts Amanda".

Staveley, who claims to have made her first million by the age of 24, met Prince Andrew five years ago at a lunch with the King of Jordan. According to reports at the time, her relationship with Andrew was the main reason why the Duchess of York moved out of the family home with their daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. But the affair collapsed after a few months.