Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre is confident a return to the Champions League and a redeveloped Anfield will put the club back among Europe's richest sides.

The Reds, who posted a near £50million loss for the year ending May 2013 last week, are 12th in Deloitte's rankings, the first time they have been outside the top 10 in 14 years.

But with Liverpool on course to qualify for the Champions League this season and plans for an increased 60,000 capacity stadium progressing Ayre is confident they will be punching their weight financially sooner rather than later.

"It is serious in the sense that we are Liverpool FC and we know what good looks like. We've been there and we expect to be the best we can be," he told the Liverpool Echo.

"But you have to take a reasonable amount of comfort from the fact that we know why we are 12th.

"We are not playing European football and that's at the heart of it; we have a stadium that doesn't allow us the capacity that our demands dictate.

"We are doing what we can in terms of European football by addressing it on the pitch and if we were enjoying Champions League revenues I think that would have put us eighth in that Deloitte league this year.

"Then with the sort of capacities we're aiming for (at a revamped Anfield) and the resultant revenues we think would come from that then we actually think that would end us getting somewhere about fifth or sixth.

"We are in good shape and perhaps the best message we can give to the fans is that our timelines that we set out to achieve this are on track. We are not behind."