A former regional journalist is set to take up a supporter liaison role with the football club he used to cover.

Tony Barrett, left, who worked for the Liverpool Echo, is set to become Liverpool FC’s head of club and supporter liaison.

Tony was the Echo’s Liverpool FC reporter until May 2013, when he left to become Merseyside football correspondent for The Times.

However, he left that role last summer for a role with men’s website Joe.co.uk following a row over the Murdoch-owned paper’s coverage of the Hillsborough inquest verdicts.

Earlier in 2016, while still at The Times, Tony apologised on Twitter on behalf of his paper when it failed to run a front page story on the verdicts in April the day after they were announced.

The Echo fought for 27 years to get justice for the families of 96 Liverpool supporters who died in a crush at Sheffield’s Hillsborough stadium in 1989.

In his new role, Tony will chair, co-ordinate and manage five new fan forums – on the issues of ticket availability, ticket prices, the stadium, local supporter engagement and equality and diversity – as well as work with individual supporters and support groups on a more informal basis through social media.

He will start the job next month.

Susan Black, Director of Communications at Liverpool FC, said: “This new engagement model will give us a more open and robust platform to engage with more of our supporters on more of the issues that matter to them.

“Tony will drive this for the club and we are delighted that he will be joining us.”