Liverpool have held talks with the U.S.-based Kraft family over the funding of their proposed new ground, the Premier League club said on Wednesday. The Kraft family were understood to be the main backers behind the L4 consortium which had looked into buying a stake in the European champions earlier this year. That deal did not materialise but Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry visited the United States last weekend on an invitation from the Krafts. He watched the two clubs they own -- the MLS team New England Revolution and NFL's New England Patriots -- playing at the Gillette Stadium. "It certainly wasn't a secret visit, having attended two games with a combined attendance of over 100,000 people," Parry told the Liverpool website. "I've actually known the Kraft family since meeting them in Boston back in 2001 and have had a longstanding invitation to visit the Gillette stadium, which is one of the very few privately funded stadia in the USA. "They were keen for me to see at close hand how the match-day operation ran...(and) it also gave us the opportunity to discuss the way in which they had funded the construction of the ground."