| Liverpool FC sale: A history of New England Sports Ventures Liverpool's board has agreed to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures for £300m. But who are they?Liverpool's board has agreed to sell the club to John W Henry's New England Sports Ventures (NESV), the owners of the Major League Baseball side the Boston Red Sox.The sale may not be straightforward as the club first have to resolve a legal dispute with the current American co-owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who sought to sack members of the board in a final bid to keep control.Here are some details about NESV:• Founded in 2001 when John W Henry joined forces with Tom Werner.• Henry, a futures and foreign exchange trading adviser, founded John W Henry & Company (JWH). He is the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and co-owner of the Roush Fenway Racing team which competes in Nascar.• Henry achieved folk hero status thanks to the Boston Red Sox's 2004 World Series win, their first since 1918. They secured the title again in 2007.• Apart from the Red Sox, New England Sports Ventures also owns Fenway Sports Group (FSG), a sales and marketing firm that sells advertisements and sponsorships for Boston College and others.• In 2007 FSG bought 50% of Roush Racing and subsequently renamed it Roush Fenway Racing. The purchase was valued at in excess of £37.7m ($60m). The long-rumoured deal took more than three years to put together as Roush and Henry developed their professional and personal bonds. But once struck, the partnership quickly paid big dividends. Forbes in 2007 named Roush Fenway Racing as Nascar's most valuable team with an estimated worth of $316m.• The Boston Red Sox are co-founders of and own 80% of the New England Sports Network, a cable network that covers New England and broadcasts Red Sox games.• NESV is offering £300m ($477.6m) for Liverpool, enough to pay back the £237m of loans owed mainly to Royal Bank of Scotland, which must be settled by 15 October.LiverpoolBoston Red Soxguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Injuries: Michael Ballack out for rest of 2010; Benayoun tears achilles Bayer Leverkusen says Germany midfielder Ballack will be out of action for the rest of 2010 with a leg injury. Meanwhile, the Israeli football ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Big Mal and footballers' worst adverts Also starring how John W Henry helped the Red Sox, Brett Favre's Simpsons megamix, and the Little Prince's majesty1) In honour of Malcolm Allison, who died aged 83 last week, this is a fine documentary about his managerial career; here he is on the Big Match with Jimmy Hill and here he is being gloriously dismissive of his successor at Manchester City, John Bond. Look at the flicker of a smile that plays across his lips as he disparages Bond's achievements.2) To be fair to Tim Lovejoy, that toe-curlingly awful advert merely followed the example set by assorted footballers he's fawned over in the past, even if he does have form in this area. The Redknapp clan are among the worst offenders of course. Millionaires Jamie and Louise continue to maintain the pretence they use Thomas Cook to book their holidays, while there's a frankly worrying amount of forced bonhomie in the Redknapp household when they get their hands on a Wii. Fun for all the family, absolutely none for the viewer. Peter Crouch has also sacrificed his dignity for some corporate coin, and unsurprisingly so has Ian Wright. Here he is doing his best comic turn, playing the fool for Chicken Tonight. But we've saved the worst till last: Peter Schmeichel turning in a performance more wooden than anything we ever saw from him on the Match of the Day sofa. Footballers haven't always got it so badly wrong though. Remember this?3) OK, so Coventry City did it 40 years ago but this is still pretty special from Ronaldinho.4) We would like to think we're above laughing at people getting hit in the groin by a ball, but we've got to share this one of the Minnesota Vikings' Brett Favre suffering some pain, the likeness to this classic Simpsons episode is uncanny. And if you put them together you get this ..5) John W Henry's takeover at Liverpool has renewed hope at Anfield that former glories will be restored. After all, in 2004 Henry did help the Boston Red Sox win the world series for the first time for 86 years.6) The remarkable Sachin Tendulkar reached 14,000 Test runs last week for India. Here's how he did it. And here he is being interviewed as a youngster, all the way back in 1989. What a nice young man.Our favourites from last week's blog1) Donington, 1993. In an underpowered McLaren, Ayrton Senna sets off from fifth on the grid, drops a place to sixth into the first corner only to lead the field at the end of the first lap. According to TheSpider, who wants it to be known that decent YouTube clips about motor sport don't always have to involve crashes, "the balls-to-the-wall swing out on to the streaming outside line of the fearsome Craner Curves to slingshot past Wendlinger for third (around 30 seconds in) is probably the best in terms of raw talent, though the more casual humiliation of Hill and Prost is probably just as delightful." Senna may not have been one for singing in the rain, but he could certainly get a good tune out of his car in a deluge.2) "Aw ref! Why didn't you play the advantage?"3) In case you haven't seen them yet, the recent Euro 2012 qualifier between Holland and Sweden served up some some sensational goals and several equally sublime near misses.4) Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light ... why, it's Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead singing the Star Spangled Banner prior to a San Francisco Giants game in 1992.5) Prepare to be dazzled as All Blacks Piri Weepu, Cory Jane and Rene Ranger show off some of their amazing skills in an advert for the Sky NZ Rugby Channel that literally 10s of people are describing as "a complete fake". Meanwhile CA Technologies Brumbies rugby players Josh Valentine, Adam Ashley-Cooper and Tyrone Smith lampoon the All Blacks' efforts in their own club recruitment video.6) Shrieking away with laughter at his own jokes as his mortified colleagues look on in a mixture of embarrassed amusement and horror, New Zealand Breakfast television presenter Paul Henry talks himself out of a job as he gleefully mocks the name of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.Spotters' badges: englishpeasant, owBLD, TheSpider, BestNotMiss, janBoris.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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