D-Day for Liverpool FC in takeover saga
THE future of Liverpool Football Club, after months of wrangling, an extraordinary boardroom fall-out and a Trans-Atlantic legal battle, should finally be resolved today.
If a Texas court sitting this lunchtime removes an injuntion won by current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett on Wednesday then the £300m sale to New England Sports Ventures – owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team – should go ahead.
This will allow the football club, which was saddled with more than £200m of debt by Hicks and Gillett to pay off a £240m loan to lender RBS, which must be repaid today.
After winning a second case in the High Court in London yesterday, Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton said he is ‘hopeful’ that the sale can be completed.
“We’re nearly there. We’ve still got to take away the restraining order.”
A statement on the club’s website added: “We are glad to have taken another important step towards completing the sale process.”
The sale was initially agreed last week, but was blocked after Texan businessmen Hicks and Gillett challenged the deal and tried to sack managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre.
That led to a first High Court case on Wednesday, which Liverpool and RBS won, and the deal was moments away from being signed, when Hicks and Gillett served a restraining order made by a court in Texas – effectively an injunction – on the board, blocking the deal.
Yesterday’s second High Court decision against Hicks and Gillett – saw Mr Justice Floyd giving the pair until 4pm today to withdraw their legal action in America, or face charges of contempt of court.
The American co-owners will lose around £140m if the NESV deal goes ahead at the agreed price. They claim that the English directors have been involved in an “epic swindle” and have sold the club for far less than it is worth.
If there are further delays today, the worst-case scenario for fans of the historic club would see Royal Bank of Scotland decide to call in the loans, which would place Liverpool into administration and incur a none-point penalty from the Premier League.
