| How Broughton won control at Anfield Until yesterday, Martin Broughton had barely talked about his role as Liverpool chairman. When he did, it was incendiaryMartin Broughton had, in public, barely talked about Liverpool since his appointment as the club's chairman in June, keeping his counsel in a way that seemed to befit a blue-chip City gent brought in to effect a sale. Yesterday, Broughton went out of his way to condemn the club's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, and explain why he is going to court for the right to sell the club over their heads.While explaining his confidence that the high court will allow him and his allies – the managing director, Christian Purslow, and commercial director, Ian Ayre – to sell the club to New England Sports Ventures, Broughton accused Hicks and Gillett of "flagrantly abusing" agreements they had made with the Royal Bank of Scotland.As a departure from the Liverpool Way, in which, during the years of success, all disagreements were kept within the club, it could hardly have been more complete. Broughton revealed to supporters some of what has really been going on inside Liverpool over recent, tortuous months.He said that he, Purslow and Ayre had been able to consider themselves semi-independent from Hicks and Gillett as they searched the world for a buyer, to deliver the club from the £200m the pair borrowed to buy it, then loaded on to it to repay. Crucially, Broughton said, before his appointment Hicks and Gillett agreed that only Broughton could appoint and remove directors – a clause that was written in to the club's articles of association. Secondly, he maintained, Hicks and Gillett had agreed with RBS that they would seek to sell the club and "take no action to frustrate any sale". It was those undertakings which Broughton said they had then "flagrantly abused".Purslow, in an interview on Liverpool's official website a fortnight ago, said RBS had been instrumental in his own appointment: "I was very well known to the banks and I am sure when they were asked their view they were supportive."Purslow, after months of searching, came up with the Rhône Group, which is based in Paris. It was to buy 40% of Liverpool for £110m, leaving Hicks and Gillett, together, with a 60% majority. The pair rejected that deal for the reason they are resisting NESV now – it did not give them enough "value" for their shares.That, Purslow said, "precipitated a further series of changes" that were imposed by RBS. Hicks's son Tom Jr had resigned in January after the email exchange in which he had told a fan to "Blow me, fuckface". In 28 April, two more directors, Casey Coffman and Gillett's son, Foster, resigned. The articles of association were then changed, by agreement with Hicks and Gillett, on 27 May, to include Broughton's key power to appoint or remove directors. "The board was rejigged and, most importantly, the owners agreed they would seek a sale of all the club," Purslow said.Broughton accepted the chairmanship on 8 June and yesterday he explained why he believed Hicks and Gillett agreed to his appointment: "To add credibility to the process because they no longer had any credibility."The sale has seemed slow and undignified at times, prompting some to question whether Broughton was really doing very much. The boardroom battle erupted this week. Broughton said they had been talking to NESV for months, and another bidder from Asia; that Hicks and Gillett were kept informed; and that the board meeting on Tuesday was called to review the bids and decide which one to approve.Broughton, Purslow and Ayre gathered for the meeting at the City of London offices of Liverpool's solicitors, Slaughter & May, beginning at 3:30pm. Just 15 minutes before that, they received a faxed notification from Hicks and Gillett that they were sacking Purslow and Ayre and replacing them with Hicks's son Mack and Mack's assistant, Lori Kay McCutcheon. When Hicks had said on buying Liverpool in February 2007 that his was a "multi-generational family commitment", nobody envisaged the appointment of another son in a last-minute cling to power.The pair, on a conference call, also said they did not approve the sale. Broughton took legal advice. He returned to say that Hicks and Gillett did not have the right to change the board – the "flagrant abuses" of their agreements of which he later accused them – and reconvened the meeting. Hicks and Gillett are understood to have declined to take part and Broughton, Ayre and Purslow proceeded to approve the sale to NESV and to decide that they should seek a declaration from a high-court judge, probably to be heard next week, that they have the legal power to do so, according to the articles of association and Hicks's and Gillett's agreement with RBS.Hicks said yesterday he would defend the action; that he "gave no such undertaking to Broughton", even though Broughton says the undertaking was given to RBS; that the board was properly reconstituted to give Hicks a majority; and that it opposes the sale.And so Liverpool FC, not four years after these men arrived promising to honour its cherished traditions, heads to the high court to see if the man from British Airways, more steely than anybody imagined, can finally get them out.LiverpoolBusinessDavid Connguardian.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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