| Scotland v Spain: Gary Caldwell calls on Scots to show some arrogance Gary Caldwell calls on the side to be more confident against Spain. telegraph.co.uk |
Liverpool ownership set to be decided in court tomorrow • How the day at the high court unfolded in our blog• RBS accuses Hicks and Gillett of 'breathtaking arrogance'• Owners claim more time is needed to resolve issuesThe battle over the future ownership of Liverpool is set to be decided tomorrow by a high court judge. Mr Justice Floyd said he would adjourn his ruling after a day of courtroom clashes between the American owners, club directors and its major creditor, the Royal Bank of Scotland. He is expected to offer his judgment at 10.30am.RBS lawyers accused the owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, of changing the running of the club to "frustrate" its sale this Friday. Paul Girolami QC, representing the owners, said his clients "were not trying to throw a spanner in the works" of the proposed sale deal. He said there had been other offers for the club which potentially were better than the one approved by the board.Richard Snowden QC, representing RBS, said the owners now admitted "a calculated breach of contract" by seeking to change the constitution of the football companies controlling the club and the boards involved without the consent of the bank. He said this was "to frustrate the sale necessary to repay the bank £200m by this Friday".The bank secured an injunction on Friday to prevent the Americans sacking the independent chairman Martin Broughton or any other board members.Snowden said Hicks filed evidence that if RBS did not like what he was doing, then it could enforce its security rights. "This would derail the carefully planned process designed to achieve a sale of the club in a timely manner."He said that plan would not carry the risk of Liverpool losing the nine points deducted by the Premier League when a team goes into administration.The judge was asked to impose injunctions on the owners requiring them to restore the original constitutions of the companies and managing directors.This would remove the final stumbling block to a £300m takeover by New England Sports Ventures (NESV), which will see the RBS recoup its original £237m loan to Hicks and Gillett when they bought the club in March 2007.The bank says that when the owners renegotiated an extension to the refinancing to allow a sale to be completed, they agreed that Broughton could come in alongside the managing director, Christian Purslow, and the commercial director, Ian Ayre. This gave them a three-to-two majority to prevent the owners blocking any sale they did not feel was in their interests.It was also made clear that Broughton was the only person who could change board members, so when Hicks tried to sack the English directors last week on the eve of the meeting to approve the NESV bid, the chairman rejected the move. Snowden said evidence filed to the court showed "breathtaking arrogance on the part of Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett".Girolami, opposing an immediate injunction, said all the issues involved needed more time to determine and "should not be rushed into"."What has happened is that the English directors have gone forward with the NESV bid without properly considering alternatives when those alternatives at least appear to give better prospects."Lord Grabiner QC, representing the Liverpool football club companies, said his clients were supporting the RBS application and wanted to see the issues resolved by the end of this week. He told the judge: "No court stops a board from acting as it sees fit in the best interests of the company."LiverpoolBusinessRoyal Bank of Scotlandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
EPL: Hernandez shines for Man U, Arsenal blanks Manchester City Javier Hernandez filled in for the injured Wayne Rooney in style Sunday, scoring twice to lift Manchester United into a three-way tie for second ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Inter Chief Stunned By Milito's Ballon d'Or Omission MILAN (Reuters) - Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti is stunned that striker Diego Milito was not included in the 23-man shortlist for the new FIFA Ballon d'Or. feeds.nytimes.com |
Football transfer rumours: Manchester United to pay John O'Shea how much? Today's Mill is off down the greengrocer's, just for a leek, honestQuestion: how do you make paying Wayne Rooney £250,000 per week seem reasonable? Answer: Pay John O'Shea £80,000 per week. So that's what Manchester United are about to do, according to the Sun. Ta-da! "O'Shea hit's the jackpot!" roars the redtop and it's true that the Irish defender-cum-midfielder-cum-substitute is in luck. For when other utility men are seeking extra money they have to scrawl an ad on a piece of paper and post it on the notice board of their local greengrocer's, where it competes for the attention of passersby with ads for "sensual massages from 18-year-old oriental girls" whose handwriting looks curiously masculine and non-smoking professionals wanted to share a two-bedroom flat close to local amenities, which may or may not include sensual 18-year-old oriental masseuses with curiously masculine handwriting.It remains a matter of some uncertainty as to whether the Glazers will allow any more money to be spent after all the contract extensions but some folks clearly believe they will: and that's good news for Sir Alex Ferguson's long-time penpal Steven Defour, who will finally be brought to Old Trafford from Standard Liège in January. Mind you, that deal could be funded by the sales of Michael Carrick and Darron Gibson, with the former a target for Fulham and the latter highly fancied by WBA and Sunderland.Tomasz Kuszczak, meanwhile, may as well start cavorting in his local greengrocer's, it seems. Because reports in Italy claim that when Gianluigi Buffon recovers from his hernia bother, he'll not resume playing for Juventus but will instead hightail it to United. Goal.com, meanwhile, insists the keeper United really want is Shay Given, who, the site claims, was offered to them as a make-weight in the proposed Rooney-to-City transfer. That didn't go through, as you may have heard, but the Given-to-United bit is still on, or so say the very same sources that said Rooney was definitely on his bike last week.City's suits, meanwhile, are standing excitedly around one of those big cashometers that Blue Peter used to have to gauge donations and jibbering excitedly about how close they are to reaching Sheikh Mansour's personal splurge-target of one billion pounds. There's just a little over £400m to go but market observers are optimistic that City may find a way to pay around that much in January, when synchronised swoops will take place for Sporting Lisbon's 21-year-old defender Daniel Carrico, Lazio's Romanian full-back Stefan Radu and former United flop Diego Forlán.Roma would quite like it if City, or anyone else for that matter, offered even three old lira for all-too-easily inflatable Brazilian striker Adriano. The Italian giants are not big enough to accommodate the Brazilian striker, nor rich enough to pay him £4m a year not to play, and are desperate to ease the strain on their payroll and dug-out. In fact, their payroll is currently so onerous that they are also contemplating selling star man Mirko Vucinic. Internazionale are interested. So, of course, are City.David Moyes, meanwhile, is confident of beating the smurfish Dider Deschamps in a fight, and it may just come to that, so badly do both Everton and Marseille want the 23-year-old Espanyol midfield schemer José Callejón.Swindon's Sean Morrison is causing ructions, too, as QPR, Newcastle and Sunderland all jostle for his signature.At Shakhtar Donetsk, meanwhile, the Croatia defender Darijo Srna is showing that the lessons of the Rooney sage can be applied anywhere, and has put his contract talks on hold while letting it be known that several clubs, including Chelsea and City, would be willing to lavish riches upon him.Paul Doyleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |