15 October 2010

Liverpool have returned to the High Court only two days after their dramatic victory seemed to have paved

the way for a takeover by New England Sports Ventures [NESV].

 Co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett failed in a challenge to the club's sale to NESV at the High Court in London earlier this week only for the sale to be halted by an injunction granted to the American due in a court in Texas. After the restraining order was put in place, the club’s board issued a statement promising to "move as swiftly as possible to seek to have it [the restraining order] removed". This has taken the club and chairman Martin Broughton back to the High Court in Holborn to try and overturn the Texas ruling. The club's statement continued: "Following the successful conclusion of High Court proceedings, the board of directors of Kop Football and Kop Holdings met and resolved to complete the sale of Liverpool FC to NESV. Regrettably, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett obtained a temporary restraining order from a Texas District Court against the independent directors, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and NESV, to prevent the transaction being completed.

The independent directors consider the restraining order to be unwarranted and damaging, and will move as swiftly as possible to seek to have it removed." After the Dallas injunction, which is due to be heard on October 25, Hicks and Gillett revealed the widely reviled pair want more than £1billion in damages. The legal action in Texas, which was reportedly signed by Judge Jim Jordan of the 160th District Court in Dallas, was according to a statement from the American duo "part of a lawsuit filed against Royal Bank of Scotland [RBS], Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow, Ian Ayre, NESV and Philip Nash. The lawsuit also seeks temporary and permanent injunctions, and damages totaling approximately U$D1.6 billion [more than £1billion]. The suit lays out the defendants' ‘epic swindle’ in which they conspired to devise and execute a scheme to sell LFC to NESV at a price they know to be hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value." AT the earlier High Court hearing, Hicks tried to block the sale to NESV by removing Purslow and Ayre from the board and bring in his son, Mack, and business associate Lori McCutcheon, as replacements to secure control of voting on the board. Broughton claimed this breached agreements the Americans signed when the club’s main creditor, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) extended its credit facilities. That loan facility ends imminently. NESV

plan to repay RBS the £237 million the bank is owed and this week maintained a binding agreement existed to buy the club. "We are ready to move quickly and help create the stability and certainty which the club needs at this time," said NESV in a statement. "It is time to return the focus to the club itself and

performances on the pitch."{jcomments on}

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