War goes on.
Liverpool looked set to be sold following victory from RBS in court today.
Following on from this the English portion of the club’s board issued a statement in response:
Following the successful conclusion of High Court proceedings today, the Boards of Directors of Kop Football and Kop Holdings met tonight and resolved to complete the sale of Liverpool FC to New England Sports Ventures.
Regretably, Thomas Hicks and George Gillett have tonight 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.
A further statement will be made in due course.
The statement tells us that the board (which can outvote Hicks and Gillett 3-2) chose to sell to NESV. However the sale has clearly not yet gone through.
The full document from the Texas court can be viewed here: www.scribd.com/doc/39284612/Liverpool-TRO
Expect more developments tomorrow; both sides are resolved to do what it takes to win their side of this battle. LFC remains stuck in the middle.
* More updates as and when we are able to provide them, but please also follow us on Twitter for updates and opinion:
Anfield Road – @anfieldroad
Jim Boardman – @JimBoardman
The Restraining order document is total rubbish – spells Ayre and Gillett wrong and talks about the legality of removing the directors which the high court has already ruled on. If it was to have legs they had to stick to the fact that higher offers werent considered
Interesting piece from BBC report:-
BBC Business Editor Robert Peston reported: “Although the Texas court has no direct jurisdiction in the UK, both New England Sports Ventures and Liverpool’s bankers, Royal Bank of Scotland, would not wish to be seen to be wilfully defying that court, because that could cause harm to their substantial US operations.
“That is why RBS and New England Sports Ventures will attempt to have the restraining order lifted on Thursday. If that’s achieved, Liverpool could then be sold from under Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett within a matter of hours.”
Hopefully this is true.
Thanks for all your efforts recently jim, you’ve done yourself no harm in the last few days – you even got a mention on the guardian website!!! We’ll get rid of these scumbags!
YNWA
This move tells you everything you need to know about Hicks.
What’s astonishing is that the district judge allowed this after a High Court ruling on essentially the same matter was so conclusive that Hicks was denied the opportunity of appeal…
Did he think that the “facts” brought forward in his Dallas courtroom were not considered in London?
I have to say as a guy who lived the vast majority of his life in Dallas, Texas, I’m pretty red-faced and embarassed at the association Hicks is giving us right now….
~OSI – Kicked Into Touch
http://kick-to-touch.blogspot.com/
From the guardian……………An interesting email from a law student. “The Texas judge who issued the injunction has not made an decision on the merits of the case. The injunction just halts everything until there is a hearing. The grounds for granting an emergency TRO are that the actions will create irreparable harm that cannot be adequately compensated for through monetary damages. I suspect that once Judge Jordan actually has a hearing on the issue, he will dismiss it and remove the injunction. The Texas courts probably do have jurisdiction, but they will be hesitant to take it when it will put them in conflict with English courts that are better able to adjudicate the issue. Hopefully, this has only temporarily delayed the sale and Liverpool will avoid administration, but H&G have probably bought themselves a couple more days.”
We’re back in court at 14:00 to try and resolve this issue once and for all. Hicks must be the most vile man that has entered British sport. What I don’t understand is that if Mill Financial has taken over Gillett’s shares why he is still involved in board meetings etc. I would gladly take a 9 point deduction if by the club entering administration meant that we could seel the club with no input from H&G. Hopefully we can get it sorted once and for all today and that Hicks and Gillett lose millions! My hate for Hicks goes beyond words!!!
I hope that MR I RUINED LFC FOR A EXTRA COUPLE OF QUID MOORES AND PARRY are proud of themselves and i hope they and the parasites they sold out to have a misarable rest of there lifes and when they die its a slow and horrible painful death.
Modern football makes me sick.
iTRUERED,
That is a disgraceful thing to say. I hope Jim removes your comment as soon as possible.
Sorry ray you feel like that but entitled to my opinion about the people who have shown no regard for my club its history its tradition or the loyal fans who have lined there pockets for years and intent on bleeding it dry. they didn’t and don’t care about anything but money so why should i be pleasant about them.
iTRUERED,
You’re entitled to your opinion but you should be careful what you say in a public forum. It does you no credit. We’re all really annoyed at the antics of H&G but you can’t put David Moores and Rick Parry in the same boat as those disgraceful pair.
Moores and Parry made a simple error of judgement. We’re all guilty of that from time to time. I’m sure they’re both mortified at how things have turned out.
David Moores had the club passed to him by Sir John who was a far more astute businessman so I feel it unfair to blast him for his lack of business skills. He just did what he thought was best for the club.
Sorry ray cant agree for the simple reason if it was just a simple case of error of judgement why was a contract drawn up for rick parry that he would be paid 4.5 million pounds if he was replaced just before they sold the club that tells me they were thinking about there own interests as for moores i hope you were not fooled by the extra thousand pound a share made no difference to his choice of new owners that could only be done with the blessing of moores there only thought was money . if moores wants to prove it wasn’t about money give the extra money he made back to this imaginary player account we have.
1TRUERED,
Whatever the rights and wrongs of that deal it’s still wrong for you to wish “a slow and horrible painful death” on anyone let alone a former chairman who ploughed a lot of his own money into the club until he was unable to go to the next level. I despise H&G but I don’t wish that on them.
If you think Moores was driven purely by money and not what was in the best interests of LFC then you cannot know the man. I don’t know him but I’m sure he’s hurting as much as the rest of us over recent events, probably more.
With a sale likely tomorrow let’s concentrate on the positives please and not engage in people bashing. It achieves nothing.
Ray i understand what your saying but it is the actions of these people that have got me wishing ill on them. and since rafa got sacked ive been having ago at anyone associated at running the club because i feel king kenny is the only one that can be trusted and that makes me very angry. the only people ive had ago at in the past is anyone inside or outside our club who have had ago at anyone in a red shirt. his hurt dosn’t even come close.
Hicks and Gillett have dropped the Texan injunction
Hicks now trying to do a deal with Mill Financial
But any deal with Mill required board approval. It would seem to be a non-starter.
Anyway, if the injunction has been lifted then that’s the green light for the sale to go through surely? Or does it still require the Dallas judge to give it the official approval?
Hicks and Gillett have admitted defeat but will sue the club’s directors for £1B.
A face-saving statement, nothing more. New owners should be announced within a couple of hours.
What a nerve-shattering fortnight. Hopefully by tomorrow we can return to footballing matters and the small matter of Everton on Sunday.