Car Deals

– Liverpool FC owners Hicks and Gillett lose in high court – Will owners appeal? – Board meeting due by 8pm – Sachin Nakrani: Fans have new heroes – Hit F5 or refresh button for the latest updates – Look back at how yesterday at the high court unfolded – The Gallery: Liverpool’s woes (your view!) – Please comment below or email Jacob Steinberg or on Twitter

6.08pm: Legal experts are suggesting that while Tom Hicks and George Gillett would probably be wasting their time with an appeal against the high court judgement, they could yet claim for damages against Liverpool, according to the sports lawyer Andrew Lewis .

The judge made it clear that he thinks any appeal would be inappropriate so, while it remains an option, Hicks and Gillett’s more realistic option is a claim for damages.They may argue they have sustained losses as a result of the board’s actions and believe Liverpool to be more valuable than £300m. That would give Hicks and Gillett time to get their house in order. They will still lose the football club but if they are going to recoup some money, which is the most important objective for them, that might be the way to go. I don’t expect them to let this lie. However the verdict is a significant victory for Liverpool. The court has effectively ruled that Hicks and Gillett are not entitled to stand in the way of any sale by the Liverpool board.

6.02pm: Jamie Carragher says that Liverpool’s players can have no excuses for their form on the pitch, despite the ownership issues. Speaking to TalkSport, the defender had the following to say on the boardroom shenanigans and this weekend’s Merseyside derby.

We have changed the manager, we have changed the board and if things don’t change now then the players will go too. Everything else has changed, it is just the players who have stayed the same. I hope we can look forward now. I don’t think the protests have affected things too much, because the protests and marches were usually before or after games. The atmosphere has not been great at Anfield recently because the performances have not been that great. But a lot of supporters will be delighted with the outcome today. I am sure that will give us a feel-good factor and we hope that will help us.

5.38pm: Evening all. I’ll be carrying on this live blog for the next few hours or so, but as I have various other jobs to do tonight, the updates will be sporadic at best. The main focus is, as Steve points out below, the Liverpool board meeting at 8pm, where we’ll hopefully be told whether the NESV takeover bid receives the green light. You can email me here or tweet me here .

5.23pm: My colleague Jacob Steinberg will be taking over this blog for the evening. He has other jobs to do too, but he will post major updates .

The Liverpool board meeting is due to start at 8pm. We will hopefully be told if that meeting ratifies the NESV takeover bid. There may or may not also be updates on whether Hicks and Gillett will attempt to appeal against today’s court ruling.

Thank you for reading, commenting, emailing, tweeting today.

4.50pm: Time to recap today’s events:

– Judge rules against Hicks & Gillett, saying that they did not have the right to oust the board. Mr Justice Floyd ruled that Hicks and Gillett have “no absolute right to veto a sale” and said he didn’t want to issue a ruling that could “damage” the Boston bid.

– The “reconstituted” board of Liverpool FC will meet tonight, in London, from 8pm, to decide next move, which is expected to be….

– …ratifying the decision to sell Liverpool FC to John W Henry and New England Sports Ventures for £300m.

– NESV says it has a “binding agreement in place” to buy the football club .

– But Singapore businessman Peter Lim is still pursuing his rival bid for Liverpool . He urged the board to “not simply ratify a sale to NESV” after he unveiled a £320m offer yesterday .

– Royal Bank of Scotland – which had set a deadline of Friday for the repayments of the club’s debts – said “RBS has every confidence…the board will now reach appropriate decisions regarding the next steps” .

– Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton said: “We will have a board meeting this evening and proceed with the sale process. I’m not going to prejudge the board meeting…But the club’s going to have a great future. … We will get the right owners for the fans.”

– The judge said it would be “inappropriate” for Hicks and Gillett to appeal. The owners will also have to pay legal costs of up to 500,000 pounds.

– But H&G may go directly to the court of appeal. Such a move would be unlikely to be able to stop a sale, but might become a case for damages.

– During the case it was also revealed that American hedge fund Mill Financial has put in a bid that also pledges to wipe out the club’s debts and would provide up to £100 million pounds to fund a new stadium. Mill Financial technically controls Gillett’s 50 percent stake after he defaulted on the loan used by Gillett to fund his part of the leveraged takeover in 2007.

And, as Paul Kelso tweets : “Atmosphere in #LFC board meeting could be interesting: “Hi Tom, it’s Martin…”

3.55pm: Talking to legal experts, the feeling seems to be that H&G probably will try to get the appeal court to hear them. But if the LFC/NESV talks are concluded and the deal is done, an appeal court ruling won’t be able to unpick that deal. It might become a case for damages, though. H&G could potentially hope for £100m damages, but would be very unlikely to get them.

Lawyer (and Liverpool fan) Damian McPhun emails: “In order for any appeal to succeed, H&G will need to demonstrate that the verdict of the judge at first instance (i.e. Justice Floyd) was “wrong”. In reality this means they will need to show that the verdict was not within the reasonable spectrum of decisions that could be made about the case. The mere fact that an Appeal judge might have come to a different opinion is not the determining factor – the Court of Appeal won’t interfere unless a verdict is obviously wrong. Even to get permission to appeal H&G will need to show that an appeal would have reasonable prospects of success – not a formality in this case.”

3.49pm: LFC board meeting that will decide future of club will take place at Slaughter&May’s London offices at 8pm – media scrum already in place, tweets @danroan .

3.15pm: Andy Thornley filmed the scenes outside the High Court earlier today.

There is also this Guardian film of the singing and the post-verdict interviews.

2.58pm: Royal Bank of Scotland statement:

Today’s judgment vindicates the actions RBS has taken to ensure that decisions concerning the future of Liverpool Football Club are made by a properly constituted Board acting in the Club’s best interests. RBS has every confidence that having been put on a proper footing, the Board will now reach appropriate decisions regarding the next steps.

2.34pm: I’ve had a lot of emails and comments below the line about Anthony O Connell’s email (10.35am) which said: “Is it just me or is there no future for courtroom MBM, they are seriously long and boring a bit like a cricket match.” I’d just like say that I think Anthony was teasing. But thank you to you all for your thanks and compliments for our work over the last couple of days. It is nice to be appreciated.

But it’s not over yet…

2.27pm: Long-time Liverpool supporter, and the man who brought Lady In Red to the world, Chris de Burgh, says: “I’m delighted by the Judges decision in the high court action involving Liverpool Football Club. In spite of what may have been the best intentions Hicks & Gillett have been catastrophic for the club, they’ve been like unwanted houseguests who overstayed their welcome. So with this sorry saga behind us, it’s time for the club and it’s millions of supporters to move on, hopefully to a brave new beginning and put Liverpool Football club back where it rightfully belongs, at the top of the Premier League.”

Entirely coincidentally, Chris has a new album out next week which will be exclusively available at Asda.

2.13pm: So, beyond that NESV statement, how have the events at the High Court been playing out in America?

Boston.com reports that John W Henry spent 90 minutes yesterday afternoon in the Phoenix Landing pub in Cambridge (US), which is apparently “a haven for supporters of Liverpool FC”. He left when a British TV crew appeared. (Thanks for that link to Vin Miles).

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox MLB site reported at the end of last week : “The owners of the Red Sox have successfully acquired a new endeavor. New England Sports Ventures, a group headed by John Henry and Tom Werner, learned Friday that the English Premier League has approved their $476 million bid to purchase the Liverpool franchise.” (Phil Unsworth emailed that link in, with hopes that the “Americanisms” will not creep in at Anfield)

2.08pm: New England Sports Ventures has released a statement saying that it has a “binding agreement” to buy Liverpool . Full statement:

NESV welcomes today’s High Court judgment, which is a huge step forward for Liverpool FC. NESV has a binding agreement in place with the Board of Liverpool FC and we are looking forward to concluding the deal. We are ready to move quickly and help create the stability and certainty which the Club needs at this time. It is time to return the focus to the Club itself and performances on the pitch.

2.04pm: Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, who yesterday put in a £320m bid for Liverpool FC , says today:

I welcome the decision of the Court. The way is now clear for the Board to sell the Club. I have delivered my Offer to the Board and believe that my ownership represents the best option for the future of the Club and it’s supporters.

I hope that when the Board is reconstituted tonight that it will not simply ratify a sale to NESV but will consider all the Offers before them. I am asking the Board to run a full and fair process that enables all of the Offers to be considered on their merits before the future of the Club is decided.

1.58pm: “Lim welcomes judgment and calls on reconstituted #LFC board to consider his new, improved offer rather than simply rubber stamping NESV’s,” tweets Owen Gibson .

1.53pm: post-verdict Q&A with Martin Broughton, carried in full by SportingIntelligence :

Q. Will NESV own the club by tomorrow? A. There’s a board meeting this evening, hopefully to determine whether or not that is the case. Q. Do you have a duty to consider any of the other bids that have come in that may be higher? A. We will take legal advice on this. Q. Do you expect the owners to take part in this? A. I would expect they will. They will certainly be invited as they were last time. I have no reason to believe they will not be there. Q. If there is an appeal next week will that affect the process? A. We will take legal advice on that.

1.30pm: Probably the best…

1.12pm: Graham Sharpe gives the bookies view : “William Hill betting on who takes over Liverpool – NESV 1/10 favs with Peter Lim’s Meriton 6/1 and Mill Financial 14/1 outsiders.”

12.43pm: Some legal opinions:

Andrew Nixon, Associate at Thomas Eggar LLP, said:

This ruling means that there will be no need for Mr Broughton and the board to bring their own declaratory proceedings seeking an Order that they are entitled to push ahead with the deal. Hicks and Gillett do have a right to appeal the ruling against them and given the amount of cash they are set to lose on a sale to NESV, they are likely to do so. Should they decide to take that option, then there will be further delay. If an appeal is launched then RBS may extend the loan deadline. Regardless of Justice Floyd’s assertion in this morning’s judgment that it would be “inappropriate” to appeal it seems likely that there is still considerable mileage in this case.

Gerald Krasner, Partner at insolvency and recovery specialist Begbies Traynor and former Chairman of Leeds United Football Club (before selling to Ken Bates in 2005), said:

This morning’s announcement means that the possibility of Administration is now highly unlikely and the smart money is on the deal with NESV now going through. Even though there are obviously other parties now looking to muscle in, the chances of them being able to usurp John Henry’s bid are remote although, if Hicks and Gillett look to appeal against today’s ruling, that will delay things somewhat.

12.24pm: NESV boss and prospective LFC owner John W Henry tweets this morning : “Well done Martin, Christian & Ian. Well done RBS. Well done supporters!”

Yesterday he also tweeted this: “One question I can answer: Who are we? http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=bos&content_id=12766377&tcid=fb_video_12766377 ”

12.18pm: My colleague Gregg Roughley (yes, a Liverpool fan) says: “Liverpool fans might enjoy knowing that on Margaret Thatcher’s 85th birthday she’ll be watching nothing but celebrating scousers and miners all day on TV.”

12.13pm: The Liverpool Echo has tweeted a nice picture of a very pleased Christian Purslow.

Meanwhile, our new picture at the top of this blog, similarly portrays the happy board emerging from court. And on their right, getting as close to the news as possible, is our man Owen Gibson .

12.01pm: An appeal is not being ruled out yet by Hicks and Gillett , says Keith Oliver, a senior partner with solicitors Peters & Peters, who are acting for the Liverpool owners.

Mr Oliver said:

We are obviously disappointed with the judge’s decision. Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett will now be considering their next steps, and that will include whether to make an application to the court of appeal.

11.56am: Lord Grabiner QC, who represented the board, put the costs of the case at between £250,000 and £500,000.

11.55am: There were chaotic scenes outside the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, reports PA, when more than 100 Liverpool fans mobbed club chairman Martin Broughton, singing: “We love you, Martin, we do.”

Security guards tried and failed to move the crowd blocking the entrance as they broke into You’ll Never Walk Alone.

11.51am: More from the chairman: Broughton described himself as “elated” with the result but stopped short of saying that the club will definitely be sold to John Henry’s New England Sports Ventures, reports the Press Association. He told Sky Sports News:

I am absolutely elated, it’s a very important day for our club. This will clear the way for the sale, we will have a board meeting this evening and proceed with the sale. It has been an anxious time but we have been confident. But when you go to court you can never be sure.

Regarding the sale to NESV, Broughton added:

The board has to be reconstituted and I can’t prejudge what the board is going to say. It would be inappropriate to prejudge what the board may say. I want to thank the fans for their support through a difficult time. We hope to have the board meeting this evening. We will get the right owners for the fans. It was an excellent outcome and I will be very pleased when the process we came in to do is completed.

11.43am: So, while we have the verdict, this live blog will need to keep going for the rest of the day:

– Despite the Judge telling H&G that an appeal would be “inappropriate”, the owners could still try for an appeal at the court of appeal

– A board meeting will be held by 8pm to try to see through the sale to New England Sports Ventures

11.28am: Martin Broughton outside court:

Justice has been done. We will now continue with the sale process. We will have a board meeting tonight and the owners will certainly be invited.

Christian Purslow: “This is a great day for the club and will hopefully allow Liverpool to concentrate on football for the next ten years.

11.22am: Mr Justice Floyd has declined to grant an appeal. The judge said it would be inappropriate in the circumstances for him to grant leave. He said that if Hicks and Gillett are determined to appeal, they would have to apply to the appeal court for permission.

11.11am: Judge tells Hicks and Gillett it would be “inappropriate” to appeal. But that route does still remain open, although it is unclear what it could achieve with a board meeting by 8pm tonight.

Sachin says that the Liverpool/RBS barristers are now being cheered by the crowd outside.

11.07am: We will be fleshing out more detail of the court ruling over the next few hours. The judge seems to be allowing a breakneck speed to the sale process, which is what RBS and the board wanted. Will H&G appeal? Have they time to? Even if they do, can it halt the sale? Will NESV wish to proceed if new litigation is hanging? Lots of questions, hopefully some answers in the coming hours….

11.05am: The board also want court costs paid by H&G.

11.04am: Judge rules that owners should pay RBS costs.

11.02am: Broughton wants a board meeting by 8pm today to sort out the sale and there is a dispute over whether the owners will be able to communicate via phone. The owners’ QC is asking for the meeting to take place at ten o’clock tomorrow. Judge rules that it should be at 8 today.

11.01am: RBS want the owners to cover their court costs. Wonder how much they are?

10.59am: More detail:

The high court today granted injunctions that could open the way for the prompt sale of Liverpool.

The club’s owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett asked a judge to delay the hearing of an application by creditors Royal Bank of Scotland for mandatory orders paving the way for a possible sale this week. But the plea was rejected by Mr Justice

At RBS’s request, the judge imposed injunctions on the two men requiring them to restore the original constitutions of the companies and managing directors.

This removes the final stumbling block to a £300m takeover by New England Sports Ventures which will see the RBS recoup its original £237m loan to Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett when they bought the club in March 2007.

10.54am: Judge throws out attempt by owners to have interim injunction put on board.

10.50am: The injunction means the board is reconstituted with Purslow and Ayre back in place and Broughton allowed to see through the sale, reports Sachin Nakrani

10.49am: Mr Justice Floyd: “The owners do not have an absolute right to veto a sale.”

10.43am: Judge rules against H&G, which means NESV deal can proceed. We will try and flesh out the details and ramifications…

10.42am: JUDGE RULES MANDATORY INJUNCTION WANTED BY RBS AGAINST OWNERS IS GRANTED: SALE CAN GO AHEAD

10.35am: Anthony O Connell emails to say: “Is it just me or is there no future for courtroom MBM, they are seriously long and boring a bit like a cricket match. On a more serious note as a Liverpool fan this could be a big day for football in general as Liverpool are the first truly big club to go through this process and it shows exactly what could happen at various other clubs particularly Man Utd should debt default raise its head in other clubs.”

10.28am: While we continue to wait for Mr Justice Floyd’s judgment, (which, experience tells me will be long and complicated), I just need to tell you that we have had to turn off the autorefresh component of this page because there are so many readers. So you will need to hit refresh or F5 to update the page.

10.16am: While we await word from court, here’s yesterday’s recap of the basic positions argued by the main parties:

RBS says owners have contradicted rules of sales agreement by trying to oust two members of the board and there should be a mandatory injunction imposed by the court to make sure the board is reinstated.

G&H admit they have breached sales agreement but say they only did it because the board excluded them from the sales agreement and refused to take into account stronger alternative bids to NESV. As a result, they dispute the injunction claim.

The Board disputes the claim that the owners were excluded from the sales agreement and says that instead the owners simply refused to take part. It also insists the NESV bid was the strongest on the table after a thorough process to find a buyer for the club.

10.05am: Mr Justice Floyd has arrived…

10.03am: A moment of lightness before the serious stuff: the public gallery is so overcrowded that two fans are asked to leave. “Can we appeal?” they ask. The clark of court says no.

9.59am: Broughton, Purslow and Ayre are all in court. Mr Justice Floyd has not yet arrived though….

9.53am: Something cheerful for Liverpool fans to contemplate. The post-Hicks Texas Rangers won their first ever post-season series last night, to reach the American League Championship Series . If they beat the Yankees they will play in the World Series. There is life after Tom Hicks. And whatever happens over the coming minutes, hours, days, Hicks is fairly certainly going, that much was clear from court last night.

Sure this will be enjoyed on the liverpoolfc.tv fans forum thread: Any baseball fans?

9.47am: The case has moved to court 18 today. Sachin Nakrani says it’s a packed room again, standing room only, not helped by the fact that this room is smaller than yesterday’s court 16.

9.42am: As Paul Kelso says , today is very unlikely to bring an end to this saga:

Whoever loses is certain to appeal. Hicks and Gillett have launched their own counter-suit against RBS and the board, while Broughton and the club have begun proceedings for a separate declaratory judgment approving the sale to NESV. Meanwhile the three potential buyers – NESV, Peter Lim and Mill Financial – could seek damages if their ambition to control Liverpool is frustrated.

9.24am: Sports news correspondent Owen Gibson tweets from The Strand: “Back to High Court for #LFC judgment day. But legal frenzy unlikely to end here, whatever the result. Big winner? The lawyers, of course.”

9.10am: Here’s Barney Ronay on the atmosphere inside the high court yesterday . One imagines it will be pretty tense there this morning. It is unclear how long the judgement will take, these things can go on. And on. Or not. Sorry I can’t be any clearer. But, just again to say, the judgement could come by 10am.

If you have read other interesting pieces about what happened yesterday and what may happen today and beyond, please email/tweet/post comments with links. Thanks

9.07am: As if things weren’t complicated enough for Liverpool off-the-pitch, Dirk Kuyt’s injury last night won’t help either .

9.02am: After much discussion yesterday over the various bidders that were discussed in court, Owen Gibson produced this handy guide to “Who’s who in the battle to own Liverpool FC” . Although there is still much to be revealed about the bidders that H&G highlighted as rivals to the one accepted by the board, NESV.

8.54am: Good morning, Steve here . We think the verdict might come as early as 10am today. We will again have Sachin Nakrani nipping in and out of court to give us updates and Owen Gibson catching all the courtroom drama. David Conn will give us more analysis.

8.35am: Good morning, Steve will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s an extract from David Conn’s blog on the proceedings yesterday:

At the end of the day, as they say in football, or of QCs in the wood-panelled courts of The Strand picking over a football club’s guts: what have we learned?

Well, that poor Tom Hicks and George Gillett have been much misunderstood. They are not, their barrister, Paul Girolami QC, insisted, “trying to throw a spanner in the works” of Liverpool’s sale to New England Sports Ventures. That is the deal agreed by the board, chaired by Martin Broughton, last Tuesday, which might finally pay off the £200m Hicks and Gillett borrowed from Royal Bank of Scotland to buy the club in the first place, then loaded on the club to repay.

Hicks and Gillett may be holding it up with all the legal armoury corporate sluggers can pay for but, they say, it is all for the good of the club. The bids from Peter Lim, the Singapore businessman who owns a chain of Manchester United cafes in south-east Asia, and Mill Financial, the hedge fund which has apparently repossessed Gillett’s shares because he defaulted on a loan, might offer more money to the club, Hicks and Gillett say, not to them.

They do not want to stay in control or resist a sale of the club, Girolami said, but they believe the “English directors” – Broughton, the managing director, Christian Purslow, and the commercial director, Ian Ayre – ganged up on them. Hicks and Gillett’s barrister said the “English directors” formed “a sub?committee”, calling it the “home team”, and excluded the Americans from the decision?making.

Please share your comments below or email Steve Busfield or on Twitter . Liverpool John W Henry Business Royal Bank of Scotland Steve Busfield Jacob Steinberg guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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