Share Liverpool FC's bid to buy back the club has now raised £150 million in pledges.

Almost 30,000 fans have declared that they are prepared to raise £5,000 each to buy a stake in the club.

The site shareliverpoolfc. co.uk has been visited by more than 150,000 people from 49 different countries. The wave of traffic was so overwhelming the website crashed last Thursday.

American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have called the plan "pie in the sky".

But Rogan Taylor, spokesperson for Share Liverpool FC, said: "These are pretty impressive numbers for just a few days with the website live on line.

"There is massive interest and a lot of people are prepared to back the scheme. Naturally we're very encouraged.

"We undoubtedly lost a big spike when the site crashed last Thursday, but I think these numbers reveal that most fans were patient and came back when it returned.

"The stats also reveal we have a lot of work to do to present more detailed information, and also to address the affordability issue that many fans flagged up.

"But we will be underlining that group membership will be possible - a group of pub regulars could get together - and we hope soon to be able to announce a loan scheme which would enable fans to spread the cost."