Rafael BenÍtez is expected to make a decision on his future once Liverpool’s Champions League campaign and last hope of silverware this season comes to an end. The manager believes that the situation at Anfield is becoming increasingly unworkable as the civil war that has engulfed the club shows no signs of abating.

Despite the bitter boardroom ructions, Liverpool have impressed on the pitch, progressing to the semi-finals of the Champions League and assuming pole position in the fight for fourth place in the Barclays Premier League, but BenÍtez is deeply concerned that the off-field troubles could extend into the summer and wreak havoc with preseason plans.

With the “first refusal” agreement between the club’s co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, which stipulates that one must offer the other the chance to purchase his 50 per cent stake before selling to a third party and vice versa, not due to expire until the end of next month, and with Rick Parry, the chief executive, refusing to bow to Hicks’s demands that he resign, BenÍtez sees no immediate end to the crossfire tearing the club apart.

While his position is by no means assured even if he does opt to stay on, BenÍtez is aware that there would be no shortage of potential suitors at the end of the season - Barcelona and Inter Milan are expected to change managers - and that a second Champions League victory in four years would do his prospects no harm.

Although BenÍtez is in a significantly stronger position than before Christmas, when it emerged that the Liverpool owners had met Jürgen Klinsmann about the possibility of the former Germany coach taking over as manager, Dubai International Capital, the Arab investment consortium, may choose to appoint its own man should it win control at Anfield. Hicks’s support for the Spaniard is viewed by some within the club as little more than a smokescreen with which to curry favour among fans.

BenÍtez believes that he has been undermined on one too many occasions after it emerged yesterday that the club had held two meetings with Klinsmann behind his back.

The first was in New York and attended by Hicks, Gillett, Parry and other members of the Liverpool board, while the second took place at Hicks’s holiday home in California during Thanksgiving weekend in November, when Parry was not present.

Although aware that Gillett and Hicks had met Klinsmann, who takes charge of Bayern Munich on July 1, BenÍtez reacted with disgust on Sunday to the news that Parry had attended one of the meetings, claiming that it further undermined his position and demanding immediate clear-the-air talks with the board.

There were suggestions that BenÍtez exchanged e-mails with Gillett and Hicks on Sunday, but while Parry said yesterday that he would be “more than happy to sit down and talk with Rafa about this”, it is unclear whether any discussions have been held between the two. Parry and BenÍtez are expected to attend a memorial service today to mark the 19th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

With the Liverpool players and about 3,000 supporters also likely to be in attendance to remember the 96 people killed in the tragedy, respect should be restored for a day at least, although the war of words may resume tomorrow when Sky Sports televises an interview with Hicks.

Neither Hicks nor Gillett, who will continue to stand by Parry despite his partner’s claims that he will make a “formal request” to his fellow American to terminate the chief executive’s contract, are expected to attend the memorial service.

Although Fernando Torres, the Liverpool striker, expressed confidence yesterday that BenÍtez would be at the club “for a long time”, Ladbrokes were offering even money on the manager not being in charge at the start of next season, while the bookmakers could not separate BenÍtez and Parry with odds of 5-6 on who might go first.

The irony for BenÍtez is that he joined Liverpool primarily to get away from the boardroom problems he encountered at Valencia, but as things stand, a return to Spain may prove to be the most appealing option.