As reported earlier, the court battle between Liverpool FC’s co-owners and the Royal Bank of Scotland was escalated by the bank earlier this morning in the wake of what Anfield Road understands was overnight counter-action by Tom Hicks.
The story last night was that today’s session – which was actually RBS v Hicks and others – was little more than a discussion between lawyers to discuss the process and to agree times and dates. RBS had taken this action because Hicks had tried to interfere with the board, something that RBS and LFC contend he doesn’t have any right to do.
We were informed this afternoon that Tom Hicks had counter-sued Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow, Ian Ayre and RBS overnight, claiming they had not acted appropriately in terms of accepting the bid from NESV.
As a result, what had been expected to be a low-key minutes-long meeting of lawyers became a full-blown battle between the various legal representatives appointed by not only RBS and Hicks but also by Liverpool FC and other interested parties.
The day in court ended late this afternoon with a decision that the verdict will be announced at 10am tomorrow.
Anfield Road understands that Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre will all be in attendance at the court tomorrow. Tomorrow is being seen as the big day supporters have been waiting for and “could be an important step forward for LFC” – if the judge rules in favour of RBS.
Summary is expected to last up to an hour and although this remains the Royal Bank of Scotland’s case a victory for the bank would be seen as a major step for Liverpool FC.
Anfield Road was assured earlier that there was never any intention to dissuade supporters from being there for the trial. We were assured that this was quite the opposite of what was wanted.
We said that as soon as the date, time and location of the trial were known the details would be released and relayed to supporters.
The message Anfield Road had heard was quite clear – if fans were going to take time off work and spend their hard-earned cash travelling to the court to show their support for the club, please turn up on the right day.
Tonight’s message is also clear.
Tomorrow is the big day: Royal Courts of Justice, London, 10am, Wednesday 13th October 2010.
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Fascinating day in court. But whatever happens I was delighted to see this (my emphasis added):
“Representative for Hicks and Gillett claims case against them paints ‘misleading picture of the issues’. This case is not about, he says, the owners trying to maintain their ownership of the club. **THEY ACCEPT REALITY THAT THEIR OWNERSHIP WILL SHORTLY COME TO AN END.** It’s also not about owners trying to put spanner in the works regarding a sale. The owners accept that some sort of sale will have to occur. They are not intent on stopping sale to NESV. The owners’ issue is that the board did not properly enter into the NESV agreement in that the directors did not properly consider alternative offers and so it is they who are in breach of the terms of the sale agreement with RBS.”
Let’s hope that if Hicks loses this case tomorrow he will finally show some dignity and walk away. Given he and Gillett accept their tenure is at an end what would be the point of the judge siding with them?
If they want more money that can be dealt with in a separate action but I doubt they would win that one.
Let the players and fans have some respite from this living nightmare. I’ve had a belly full of all this vitriol.
Ray,
Hicks has no soul, he’d take the shirt of your back – expect nothing from him in the way of dignity.
Anyone see Lord Grabiner punch the air on leaving the court this evening. Most unusual behaviour from a QC !
Lord Grabiner’s fist salute was refreshing (and bloody erratic behaviour from a QC) to see. Hopefully we will all be doing the same in a few days.
I will be so glad when we can go back to talking about football.
Only 11 hours before we know. I don’t imagine I will sleep well tonight!
As pointed out by Hop, it’s probably the first time anyone’s believed that the owners do actually want to call it a day.
What’s annoying though is that there isn’t anybody there representing the fans. Not that I’d expect there to be, but:
RBS want their money (and maybe more in the future for the day-to-day financing of the club)
Hicks and “Gillett” want their money (or to at least not lose it all)
Broughton wants to ensure RBS get their money and that his task is complete
But nobody will say anything about which is the best bid for the club out of the 3 mentioned today.
That doesn’t seem to be a concern.
Anyway, amazing to find 3 interested parties after it looking like there were none.
H & G remind me of the two wall street tycoons from the film Trading places, lets just hope the H&G will be served with the same faith of those two.
Was Lim just another ploy by Hicks to raise the bar even more by showing that he could possibly get more for the club? Its suspicious that Lim waits until now to want to make the club his. Too shady in my opinion, I think the safe bet if you can call it that is NESV…….we’ll see!
Full disclosure: I’m a yank. My earliest and fondest memories as a child living in Liverpool in the mid-70’s were of my dad taking me to matches at Anfield and traveling to away matches together. Though he eventually left Liverpool for the States, marrying my Brooklyn-NY mother and settling here, he remained as strong a supporter of LFC as anyone until his passing, just 2 months after Hillsborough. Before I could name our presidents over here, I could name our starting 11. Clements, Neal, Thompson, Smith, McDermott, Keegan then Dalglish…I was programmed to dislike or not care about any other sport or team. Only after many years of persuasion caused by living most of my adult years in NYC have i eventually come to (mildly) support the NY Yankees. Ironically, the Red Sox are to the Yankees what Everton are to us. Our Nemesis.
So it is both frustrating and rather amusing (dad would definitely agree) that I have found myself hoping for a Red Sox win, of sorts. Just as the English come in many shapes, sizes and character, so do us yanks. We’re not all gillets and hicks. As we turn the page from this sad chapter in our club’s gilded history, I say to my fellow supporters: try and give Henry’s lot a chance. We’re not all alike. If I can find a way to cheer for the Red Sox, so should you.
ScouseInNYC
hicks has no dignity has no pride the state of his finances are his own undoing,lim we cant trust his tactics are dodgy to say the least. lets hope all goes well today.
LIM , NESV Dont believe either would be stupid enough to jump into bed with these two idiots unlike Moores and Parry (they were unbilievably thick but i think we all knew that) mill finance (hedge funds is there business) NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NEVER. Fingers croosed it wont be long now before we see the back of these Multiple bleeps.
Jim,
You do Broughton something of a disservice. My understanding is that his brief is to get the best deal bearing in mind the long term interests of the club. He has repeatedly stated that this may not be the highest offer and in view of his performance as chairman to date I’m sure that’s exactly what he’s trying to do. Perhaps I missed it but I’m surprised it didn’t feature in court yesterday. The board therefore is perfectly entitled to dismiss Lim’s offer if it thinks NESV would be the better owners. I agree.
This would be a worrying portrayal of the John Henry if true;
http://football-talk.co.uk/8379/nesv-sue-liverpool-buyout-fails/
Written by John Toher
Friends of Liverpool
It emerged last night that John W Henry will demand tens of millions of pounds if the deal is not rubber-stamped by the Liverpool board. NESV insisted that it would defend its deal with the club and could sue for “tens of millions in damages” should it collapse through administration, the board deciding to sell to another bidder, or Hicks and Gillette being granted an injunction to prevent the sale.
“These could result in very substantial damages running into tens of millions of pounds,” said David Chivers QC, acting for NESV.
Hardly the sort of utterances we need to hear from our possible new owners, looking to sue the club before they even get to own it. It casts John Henry’s takeover in a bad light before they even begin to run our club. Let us hope that they are not another hard-balled owner of Liverpool FC who are out to make a fast buck on our club.
In any event, it is believed that the Liverpool board sanctioned the approval of their bid last week and that contracts may have been signed with NESV for the sale of the club. Things are changing minute by minute so I really don’t know whats going to happen next.
Nice to see RBS respond to our email campaigns to get rid of Hicks & Gillette.
Refused the right to appeal – great day