LIVERPOOL, England - Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry insists the club's American owners are ready to provide coach Rafael Benitez with the cash he wants to strengthen his squad.

Parry played down suggestions Benitez was unhappy with the lack of progress being made over funds for new signings and claimed multi-millionaires Tom Hicks and George Gillett are committed to backing the Liverpool coach.

"I can reassure Liverpool fans that the commitment of the owners is absolutely clear. They are going to provide backing to Rafa, they have made that clear to him this week, so we will be moving forward very positively," Parry told the BBC. "They have made the point that their commitment is as strong as ever. They think he is the right man for the job, they think he is a fantastic coach, they want to provide him with the backing."

Hicks owns the NHL's Dallas Stars and baseball's Texas Rangers, while Gillette owns the Montreal Canadiens.

Meanwhile, the row over the choice of the Olympic stadium in Athens to host last Wednesday's Champions League final and the behavior of Liverpool's fans rumbles on.

Liverpool lost 2-1 to AC Milan in a final that was marred by some English supporters using forged and stolen tickets to gain access to the stadium.

Their actions prevented many supporters with valid tickets from watching the game but UEFA insist it was the Greek police who decided to let fans in without tickets.

UEFA's head of communications, William Gaillard, continued to defend the choice of the Olympic stadium and promised to provide Sports Minister Richard Caborn with a report when he and president Michel Platini meet to discuss ground, ticketing and disorder issues on June 5.

"It is a complicated matter. I think we have to get more information to understand exactly what has been going on, not only in this final, but in the past few seasons," Gaillard said. "We will provide Richard Caborn with a thorough report when we meet him on June 5. It is a complex mix of strange fan behavior, if you can call them fans, because some of them not only had forged tickets but there were some who stole tickets from others. That is criminal behavior.

"We did our best organizing this final the way is should be organized. I don't think we were way off the mark. We had absolutely no problems with the Milan fans for example because they behaved properly. What happened at the Liverpool end is a question of public order. It was the behaviour of a few hundred people which caused a lot of trouble."

But Gaillard's stance was questioned by Parry, who said he warned UEFA during the days leading up to the final that intelligence suggested 5000 forged tickets were in existence.

"To have a stadium with no counting system and no turnstiles in this day and age, is simply unforgivable for any standard of game, let alone a major final," Parry said. "We produced a report for UEFA a week beforehand predicting, sadly, all of the things that did go wrong.

"We told UEFA that our intelligence suggested there were 5000 forged tickets in existence. They knew and we knew, that thousands of fans would travel without tickets and we stressed the need for a proper check at the outer cordon. We do not condone the behavior of Liverpool fans who charged gates, who stole tickets or who knowingly had forgeries, that is clear. At the same time we are hugely concerned that many innocent fans with valid tickets did not get in. We are concerned that members of our staff were tear-gassed and the checks at the outer cordons did not work."