Wednesday 13 October 2010

At the end of the Court, there's a Golden Sky

Legendary status amongst Liverpool fans is normally earned through years of dedication, passion and commitment from football players performing in front of 45,000 at Anfield every fortnight.

However, for the first time ever three board members will go down in history as Liverpool legends after Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre (with a little help from RBS) comprehensively defeated and humiliated our parasitic owners in the High Court, paving the way for a takeover of the club, most likely by the well-respected New England Sports Ventures (NESV).

Lord Grabiner successfully argued that Tom Hicks had breached his contract with RBS by attempting to sack both Purslow and Ayre after they had approved the sale to NESV.

As a result, the judge granted the mandatory injunction wanted by RBS against the owners, allowing the sale of the club to go ahead without the approval of Tom Hicks.

With George Gillett already out of the picture after defaulting on a £75 million loan, the board are now free to sell to whoever they deem to be the right custodians of the club for the long-term future.

The first day of the case was full of twists and turns, with Hicks' representative admitting the breach of contract barely 13 minutes into the trial. However, he argued that Hicks only tried to change the board after being isolated from the sale process by the English members of the board.

Hicks, who has become accustomed to lying through his teeth over the years, had written a letter to the court claiming that he had "become excluded from the sale process by the board."

In an attempt to add credence to his ridiculous views the Texan cowboy claimed to have had no knowledge of a board meeting regarding the sale of the club on 5th October.

The excellent Grabiner devastatingly destroyed this argument, as he revealed that Hicks and Gillett had a lawyer listening via telephone to the very meeting he had claimed to be excluded from.

Grabiner then insisted that the owners had simply refused to turn up, which would certainly be in-keeping with their lackadaisical approach to Liverpool Football Club.

Hicks' representative had also stated that the board rushed through a deal without considering the alternatives available, because they were so desperate to see the back of his client.

This was the foundation of the owners argument, however it was swiftly removed by Martin Broughton's QC, who informed the judge that it had been a "thorough and well thought process" with 130 parties receiving approaches from the board about a takeover.

The nerves of supporters were tested further just after 4:00pm yesterday as the judge said that it would be a "little ambitious" for the case to be settled by Friday.

The possibility of administration had haunted fans for days before the trial, however we had still held out hope that it could all be sorted without the club suffering a points deduction.

Now, it seemed almost inevitable that the club would be placed into administration, leaving us stranded at the bottom of the table. With a resolution before the weekend deemed unlikely by Mr Justice Floyd many fans were frightened that not only would the club plummet to the bottom of the table, but that the case would also drag on for weeks, leaving Liverpool in limbo.

Thankfully (and somewhat confusingly) the judge later declared that he would make a judgement on the case at 10:30am on Wednesday morning. This arrived only 44 minutes after he had said that a resolution to the case was unlikely to arrive before the weekend.

This sudden change of heart was good news for fans. Hicks' only hope of clinging onto power was that a lengthy court process would discourage bidders, causing them to retract their offers.

With that option seemingly removed both the board and the supporters were confident of victory.

The final verdict, which had been moved forward half an hour to 10:00am, was finally announced at 10:42am, with the judge granting an injunction against the owners, allowing us to finally move on from the parasites who have blighted our club for far too long.

Mr Justice Floyd confirmed what we already knew, namely that the parasites didn't have a leg to stand on in court. He later stated that it would be "inappropriate" of Hicks and Gillett to appeal.

The vermin probably don't understand the word "inappropriate" after a lifetime of acting in a manner that scarcely even deserves that term. I fully expect them to appeal however it is incredibly unlikely that any appeal will be able to stop the sale process.

Hicks and Gillett have to prove that their appeal has a reasonable chance of success to even achieve another hearing in Court. Even then the most they will be able to claim for are damages.

A board meeting has now been arranged for 8:00pm this evening, where the re-constituted board consisting of Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow, Ian Ayre and the owners (if they decide to show up) will discuss whether to complete the deal with NESV or to consider a bid of £320 million from Singapore billionaire Peter Lim.

NESV remain in the front running because the sale of the club to them has already been agreed. Therefore, if the club was eventually sold to another party then they could end up suing us for millions of pounds, which is something that the club could do without during this critical period.

I would like to see the club sold to NESV. Their financial and sporting record is impeccable, and they have proven their credentials by re-vitalising the Boston Red Sox.

Moreover, John Henry is seen as one of the best baseball owners across the pond, and has begun to develop a rapport with Reds fans by following both "Spirit of Shankly" and "Help Save Liverpool FC" on Twitter.

I must say a massive thank you to Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow, Ian Ayre and RBS for all the great work they have done to help us reclaim our club from the crutches of a cowboy.

Liverpool supporters have also shown their commitment and passion for the club through endless emails and protests.

A Manc mate of mine even admitted to me recently that we have the best fans in the country. Of course this was common knowledge before the parasites arrived, however the fantastic work from Liverpool fans has filtered this fact through to even our arch rivals, who could suffer a similar fate to ours in the not too distant future.

Tom Hicks must now be ruing describing Liverpool fans as "noise he could deal with." We've proven the parasite wrong, now let's party!

Roll on NESV ownership, and roll on the good times!

YNWA

(Thanks to Djordje Pavlovic from the Facebook page "LFC Transfer Speculations" for providing the title of this piece.)

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