Before Tom Hicks and George Gillett became partners in the ownership of Liverpool FC they barely knew each other. They met now and again at NHL meetings and matches, and although they were never friends they were never enemies either. That came later, which is why the club is now once again looking at a change of ownership.
But if Hicks and Gillett grew to loathe each other over nine or ten months of being distant partners in a distant venture, what hope is there for the relationship between Hicks and his potential new partners at DIC if they already seem to loathe each other?
Once again the constant bickering seems to be playing out in the press, the tone of the arguments very much like that between young, bored siblings fighting in the supermarket much to their parents’ annoyance. All it needs is a cry of “He started it,” and “No she did,” to prove that’s how it’s all working.
Tonight Liverpool’s co-owner Tom Hicks was so angry at seeing a leaked letter of his appear in the papers that he went to the Associated Press to complain about it. The letter, to Sameer Al-Ansari, included a paragraph where he intimated his disapproval of Amanda Staveley’s use of the press in recent days. Staveley is the representative for DIC in these negotiations and Hicks probably hoped that by complaining to her boss that the use of the press would stop.
Dated Wednesday (5th March) and sent “via email”, the letter was reproduced in The Telegraph, and read:
Dear Sameer,
A group of my people will be in your region this weekend and early next week.
I thought it might be useful if they came to your office on Monday to visit. If you are available, I will have Roy Bailey, Executive Vice President of Hicks Holdings, Casey Shilts, Chief Operating officer of Hicks Sports Group and my son, Mack Hicks, Vice President of Hicks Holdings meet with you.
They have another meeting that day with someone with Dubai Investment group, but can work around your schedule.
Amanda has certainly made the press and interesting read in the UK the past few days. I think all of our Club’s fans will be pleased when George’s ownership is resolved.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Very truly yours,
(signed)
Thomas O. Hicks
DIC have accepted the idea of taking a 49% share, as long as agreements are in place that suit their needs and protect them as they feel appropriate. Hicks has the right to block a sale by Gillett if he can match any offer, and also claims to have the right to buy 1% of the club from Gillett as part of any sale to a third party. But reports earlier in the week suggested those rights were based on some weak foundations legally, weak enough that DIC felt a challenge was possible, and from those doubts came the 49-51 compromise. A legal challenge would be lengthy, costly and not exactly good for the club. All parties felt the compromise was best for the club according to last night’s statement from DIC.
The statement was issued by Staveley, subject of Hicks’ more restrained rebuke in the leaked letter. Hicks was no longer willing to show restraint in his own use of the press earlier today, launching into another angry tirade in what is fast becoming a regular occurrence. He said of Staveley, in what sounded once again a threatening tone: “If she thinks that is an appropriate way to acquire a stake in Liverpool FC, she had better think again.”
One serious, large, and almost certainly unmoveable issue that Liverpool fans have with Tom Hicks is that he seems to act in anger rather than careful reasoned thought of what’s best. He seems to bully his way towards his goals. A large proportion of Reds supporters assume Hicks was the force behind the original decision to sack Rafa in the summer, a decision made in anger and only put on ice due to advice that it would cause a backlash. In November Rafa got wind of what Hicks and Gillett were up to – lining up Klinsmann as his replacement – and was angrily told to shut up and concentrate on coaching, as we all found out at a press conference. After a December meeting Rafa was warned not to discuss the club’s affairs with the press, yet Hicks saw no problem in going to the US press himself to mock Rafa and accuse him of “pouting”. He happily uses the press to get his own points out, but hates getting a taste of his own medicine.
Clearly riled, Hicks continued his enraged attack to AP on the woman who could be a fellow board member if the deal goes through: “Amanda Staveley, who has a reputation for being pretty smart, she should know better than to publicly put words in my mouth, particularly words that she knows or should know perfectly well aren’t true.”
And then came an accusation: “She should also know better than to release actual copies of my private correspondence to the press.”
How does Hicks know if it was Amanda Staveley who actually leaked the letter? It was sent from him to Sameer al-Ansari. If al-Ansari sent it on to Staveley, how many other relevant DIC employees got to see it? Was it passed around those who attended discussions with Staveley in London earlier this week, representatives of both Hicks and Gillett? Also at those meetings was Rick Parry, LFC’s current CEO. It was a leaked internal document, alluding to DIC’s seven-year plans for their investment in LFC, that gave Hicks and Gillett a boost in their own takeover bid little over a year ago. Is it the same source leaking this document now, as a way of trying to reverse a decision he now regrets? Is Hicks sure he’s not got someone in his own camp willing to leak this kind of document?
It was certainly perfectly valid for it to be distributed to a large number of individuals, particularly with it being written under the LFC logo. The poor quality of the copy shown by the Telegraph suggests they didn’t get their copy from a forwarded version of the original email.
Hicks has also appointed himself as broker for Gillett’s shares, according to another claim he made to AP: “DIC is one of several potential minority investors we are or will be talking to.” Does George know about this, after all it is his stake? Or is this another lie, another show of disrespect to Liverpool supporters?
Hicks has despised the use of the press by DIC in recent weeks and was reportedly angry at this prediction from Staveley: “Tom Hicks knows that in the long run we will be 100 percent owners of the club, but we are prepared to play a waiting game. We will be able to pay the price for the financing of the club and construction of a new stadium.”
Gillett is set to receive a ridiculously high £80m profit for his year of broken promises and tacky publicity stunts, and will forever be remembered as the greediest man in the club’s history. He was stalling even on that excessive amount until late in the day on Friday, but is now ready to sell.
A DIC source denied that anyone involved on their side had leaked the letter, “a source close to the DIC negotiations” saying: “This letter has not been leaked by DIC or any of our negotiating team to the media. We do not expect any problems with the meetings next week, and we expect the deal to buy George Gillett’s stake to go through.”
A number of members of the Hicks family attended today’s game at Anfield, Alex Hicks finding himself sitting alongside England boss Fabio Capello. Given their previous attendance at games has usually only been for the bigger, higher profile matches, this attendance was clearly designed to send a message. But who was the message for exactly? Was it to DIC to somehow prove they won’t easily be moved from their position? Or, with Alex wearing a Liverpool scarf, was it intended to convince Liverpool fans that the Hicks family are now ready to show more interest in the club? If it was aimed at the fans then it was a wasted effort after the latest spat.
Staveley’s comments are hardly damaging, and show nothing more than a strong desire to become sole-owners one day. But Hicks’ comments are damaging because they represent an attack on the integrity of a person who could be a board member within weeks. Has anyone from DIC been quoted making personal accusations against anyone in the Hicks camp?
Whoever leaked the letter – be they from DIC, Hicks, Gillett or Liverpool FC camps – shouldn’t have leaked it, but it shows nothing we didn’t know already. It shows various Hicks companies are trying to see if they can get investment from various Dubai companies, that representatives also want to meet with DIC, and also that Hicks is not pleased with what has found its way into the papers.
Other than details that are commercially sensitive, Hicks should have nothing to hide anyway.
Before Hicks made these latest statements to the press there were very, very early signs of fans accepting that it might be worth considering giving him a chance. There was a feeling that maybe all parties were finally willing to compromise. Gillett was hardly compromising, after insisting on such a ridiculous pay-off, but DIC had said they would go with 49% and – we thought – Hicks was willing to go with it too, engaging in getting the details of that agreement ironed out. Finally we saw light at the end of the tunnel. And some fans had even turned towards the idea of holding a short truce, to let negotiations go through, to await full details. Not to let Hicks off the hook, but to give time to those involved in the deal we thought had been agreed in principle already.
Tonight we see that this is far from the case at least in Hicks’ eyes, so how can he expect a truce?
We can’t move on as a club until this change in ownership is done. It’s time to stop the public bickering. Time to stop pouting.
It’s time to shut up and concentrate on sealing the deal.
Hicks should be the last person to speak about appropriate conduct and ethics.. He has done nothing but lie to and decieve the liverpool supporters in his short time here. his antics toward us has been completely inappropriate.. the yank has no class and i pray he leaves the club sooner rather than later. he does not have the best interests of the club at heart. i really hate the man, and i am sure there are many fans like me out there. Dic need to get their foot in the door, and once they are in, everything will be smooth sailing thereafter… that i am confident about.
ok looking at this entire saga, there is no doubt that Al ansari and maktoum family are truely lfc supporters.
looking at the amount of money they spend on their passions i.e horses etc, it is safe to say that they would easily offer rafa 100-200M to improve the squad…. now where does this put cash strapped hicks in the equation.. how will this be affected by the 50-49 structure?
Snoogy_Doogy, I’m not sure how much we can be sure that the Sheik is a life-long reds fan…but I do agree wholeheartedly that
Hicks is a pure hypocrite for pulling DIC up on business ethics!
Hicks wouldn’t know the truth if he tripped over it.
The fuker is a cancer within Liverpool. The sooner that inept fat mouthed asshole is out of Anfield, the better.
I am sick to death of this crap and I wish it would all go away.
Let’s hope that Dic can influence the future of our club in a positive way and get the new ground out of the ground ASAP. Put some money in Rafa’s budget to trade some of the deadwood and get us some world class players like Gerrard, Torres and Cara.
Do it right DIC and you will NWA.
The dumb Yankee idiot has shot himself in the foot again. What a clown. Just when he *might* have been making progress with fans, I think everyone now just wants to see the back of him as soon as is humanly possible. Before this there was even talk of stopping protests at games etc – I say redouble the efforts, don’t let Hicks for one second think he’s wanted or forgiven.
God, I hate that Hicks c*nt.
Greed. I never thought I’d see the day LFC would be in this mess.
One is finally leaving, and one sticky ugly basterd to go… DIC with all what it seems like are much better in their approach, they haven’t made a big deal of it, conducted the whole matter with much appreciation and way more respect shown to themselves at least through out, unlike the texan twat who’s yet to show any signs of improvement in his conduct of the club.
I don’t think this will end here, it was VERY obvious when they made it out that one day they’ll be 100% owners of the club, and here’s hoping this happens sooner rather than later
Its a bit rich, Tom Hicks complaining about someone mouthing off to the press. Anyone who upsets Hicks can’t be all bad !
Hark who’s calling the kettle black Mr Hicks, one set of rules for you and another set for everyone else! I’m sick to my stomach of this venomous old man, the day I wake up and discover he is no longer involved with anything to do concerning Liverpool Football Club, will be very joyous day indeed for me! LFCFL-LSU/SOS-Other Side-Take Care!
http://www.forbes.com/2001/04/23/0423faceshicks.html
Have a read at this. Doesn’t make good reading at all! Hicks moves into a company bleeds them dry and sells when he’s done. I know everyone already knows this and are understandibly cross – BUT – i honestly believe our anger should be directed at Rick “the parrot” Parry and David “i want more money” Moores. Why did they allow H+G to buy the club. Surely they knew the character of these men and they way they operate businesses b4 they agreed to sell the club?!!? This is a real disaster – i honestly feel like crying sometimes about whats happening at my beloved club!
It is no accident that virtually everyone who has dealt with Hicks has ended up falling out with him within a fairly short space of time. Parry, Gillett, Benitez, Staveley are all people Hicks has fallen out with and been quite happy to have a pop at when it suits his purpose. These are just the tip of a huge iceberg of people Hicks has pissed off back in the US over the years.
I would have to disagree in the strongest possible terms with Hops’ comment that Hicks might have been making progress with the fans before this latest
outburst. I haven’t met a single Reds’ fan who can stand the sight (or sound) of this arrogant loudmouth.
Jim you mentioned about Hicks’ family and a large American contingent sitting prominently in the Directors’ box for the Newcastle game and wondered who this message was intended for. It is not obvious that the message was a thinly veiled “fuck you” message to all us fans after the West Ham demonstration. The truth is that with a complete bastard like Hicks on the scene there can be no half measures. We need to keep up the pressure on Hicks and his family by ongoing demonstrations at every game. We should have done this at the Newcastle game as well.
I personally would like to thank whoever leaked Hicks’s letter. Whoever it was was simply outting yet another Hicks lie by providing proof that despite all his denials and bluster about Gillett’s shares Hicks has been negotiating with DIC all along.
I’ve mentioned this before. We must find his phone number, his son’s phone number, his company’s phone number. The US press, everything link to Hicks, american sports, american papers, american embassy and protest. Jam his phones, e-mail, sms, company’s hotline, all the different departments of his companies until they miss deals, lose business etc.
When he changes number we do it again. We make him afraid to publicise his companies info keep making him change his companies’ numbers.
He’ll lose millions of dollars deal. Get the american fan club, if there’s one to send out flyers telling people of this cheating, lying bastard that is sucking the life out of every Liverpool fan. LETS SHOW THE F***ER WHO IS BOSS!!!
What I find disturbing is the notion that there are some fans who actually thought of giving Hicks another chance. Surely this can’t be true. After all he has done how can there be people so weak. We need focus and determination to get him out.
I did a search on Tom Hicks in Google and I found this link. It basically sums up the scum bag. My question is, why did’t Rick and David see this? Was due diligence practiced or were they blinded by money?
http://www.utwatch.org/utimco/hicks.html
HERE’S THE SCUMBAG’S BUSINESS ADDRESS. NO EMAIL YET BUT IM MINING EVERY SITE I CAN TO GET MORE PERSONAL INFO
Hicks Holdings
100 Crescent Court
Suite 1200
Dallas, TX 75201
United States
(214) 615-2300
BELOW ARE THE COMPANIES HE’S ASSOCIATED WITH AND HIS ROLE IN EACH. IM GONNA SPAM EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THEM.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBERSHIPS
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Chairman
HM Capital Partners LLC
HM Capital
200 Crescent Court
Suite 1600
Dallas, Texas USA 75201
t +1214.740.7300
f +1214.720.7888
managementopportunities@hmcapital.com
Chairman of the Board
Hicks Sports Group, LLC
200 Crescent Court
Dallas, TX 75201
United States
t +1214.965.7979
Former Chairman
Dallas Stars, L.P.
2601 Avenue of the Stars
Frisco, TX 75034
United States
t +1214.387.5600
Chairman
Texas Rangers Baseball Club
1000 Ballpark Way
Suite 400
Arlington, TX 76011
United States
T+18172735222
Chairman
Hicks Acquisition Co. I Inc.
100 Crescent Ct Ste 1200
Dallas, TX 75201
t +1214-615-2300
THE GREEDY F***ING BASTARD – HOW MANY COMPANIES DOES ONE FAT BASTARD NEED. LETS DESTROY HIS LIFE
PS – THE TEXAS RANGER’S FANS WANT SHOT OF THIS C*NT TOO:
http://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/rangers-fans-against-hicks/
Is there a way to get a fax machine to try and send a fax to these phone lines continuosly?
Imagine:
Fax machine or internet fax dials those business numbers.
Someone picks up and hear fax tone and hangs up
fax not sent successfully and fax machine or internet fax is programmed to resend until the fax is sent successfully.
Fax dials number again and someone picks again and fax dials number again and on and on and on.
Is this possible?
It makes me want to cry when I think of what the extra £160 million that DIC are willing to spend to buy LFC would have done in strengthening the squad. Thats 5 world class players averaging £32milllion each. Moors and Parry have so much to answer for.
I’m going to call all those numbers and when someone answers, I’ll just say politely: Please tell tom hicks to leave liverpool football club, please. Thank you.
I’ve got skype up and runnign already. Obviously its sunday so no one working but im gonna keep going! Theres bound to be a way of continuous calling – dialliang – faxing.
Such a disaster all this crap. We should be chatting about how well the lads are performing at the minute and be excited about Inter next week but instead all our effort is directed totally off tangent. i swear i hate those American’s and i have very little respect for Parrot and Money Moores also for letting the club get into this situation!
We are 10 points behind leaders Arsenal with same number of games played. Judging on previous seasons that gap should get smaller as we do well near the end, most likely due to rotation which ensures the players are not so tired during the last few games of the season. Although we won’t win the league, the gap will be much shorter than the 20 or so points we were behind the leaders at the end of last season. Imagine if we had a settled club with owners who backed Rafa. In my books thats improvement from last season. We need to back the best manager we have had in 20 years and not only when he is winning. I urge all fans to be galvanised in backing Rafa and not letting up the pressure to oust Hicks.
I can’t believe there are actually some fans out there who at this pivotal moment are advocating that we cease protests and just let negotiations between DIC and Hicks run their course. These people obviously don’t know much about negotiation strategy. Our objective should be to make Hicks’s position in those negotiations as difficult as possible so that DIC have maximum leverage against him. Is this really so difficult to understand ??
I’ve also heard some fans say “well we’ve made it clear how we feel so now we don’t need to continue demonstrations.” Hicks will be laughing at this soft and polite mentality. He couldn’t care less about being unpopular with fans unless it affects or threatens to affect the bottom line financially. How will a one off half time protest achieve this ?? Americans don’t get subtlety and they don’t respond to polite requests to leave either. The attitude towards Hicks should be the same one adopted by those guys who chased his shithead son out of the Sandon. If I had been there Hicks’s son would have been running for his life and no mistake.
IrishRed1981 has done us a favour by getting the contact info.
Anfielder is right. We can’t rest till Hicks is out. Come on Reds! make use of the info that IrishRed1981 has got for us.
Jam them, Spam them, Let their server overload! Phone lines Jam and can’t receive any calls. For what these bastards have milked us for and the mess they’ve put us in, JUST DO IT!!!
Let him beg us to stop messing with his business lines!!!
I agree totally with the idea that this 80 million could have been spent on players.
The Americans are just f**king around with the club.
Gillett was supposedly the milder of the two and look what his association with the club has achieved.
Hicks should receive absolutely no support from the fans.
i agree about the info provided. ive looked for days for stuff like that and i also have found not one email a ddress. are faxes free?
I dont know how many people read this site but if each one of us wrote a simple letter stating “F*** off Hicks, Liverpool doesnt want or need you”
inside, to each of those addresses, the pure thousands would pretty much piss off those who work there. especially the texas rangers ones who may “leak” a few to the press just to get one over on him.Id say even if they just threw our letters away if it had a British stamp on it, what of all our fellow Reds around the world did the same? would they ditch every letter from every country? it would be a nightmare scenario for these companies. Who is with me, even if you arent, im gonna be writing my letters!
I just did a google search on HM Capital and they and Hicks parted company some time back. There is a full list of their team sans Hicks on the site. That’s the problem with blind hatred – it’s blind. Streams of abusive emails will achieve nothing. I am no fan of SoS but their latest missives have been well reasoned and hard hitting and more would be achieved by sending these( and so displaying commitment ,organisation and mobilisation,) than scattergunned expletives.
I’m going to go off subject here.
I found this site a few weeks ago and was instantly impressed by the articles written by Jim.
Well written, informative posts that engage conversation and debate, with contributors putting across their points of view in an equally well written manner.
We debate, for the most part, on a very emotional subject, that is the parasite Hicks. My point is – is there any need for all the profanity?
I’m not some old codger (I’m presently working my way through a 12 pack of Carlsberg and getting stuffed on Poker Stars) and I am equally as passionate about getting rid of the vermin as the rest of you.
But I think that some of the posts belittle our club and to outsiders reading the posts we appear to be ignorant scousers.
Keep the passion, keep the hatred but lets show the world that we are better than Hicks and deserve to be listened to, reckoned withand let no one doubt that we love our club.
Absolutely brilliant info IrishRed, you deserve a medal. Lets give him hell, but remember no abuse !
By the way, does you realise that the O in Thomas O Hicks stands for orifice
anyone got a balaclava I could borrow?
Any joy today Red’s? Im just back from work – let the skype spamming begin against this Texan git!
FrostyJack – i agree with the language issue you raise but sometimes its hard to get frustration out without some obscenity. I’ll try tho lol.
LETS GET THE SKYPE GOING TO PESTER THESE MORON’S IN TEXAS!!
IrishRed1981.. im not familiar with this spamming you speak of, but i do it agree with it and i want to learn more. how do i get involved? what can i do?
all liverpool supporters need to be proactive in getting the scumbags out!
Good Job Irishred1981,
Please tell me how you use skype to spam them.
Let’s get more red fans on it!
YNWA!
Hi Guys, I do not know if there is a continuous re-dial option in skype. Im physically sitting by my laptop making calls one after the other! No joy getting thru to the top man yet – but the receptionist sound fit lol! Keep it going lads!
YNWA