| Liverpool may not have seen the last of Tom Hicks and George Gillett • Sports lawyer suggests pair could claim for damages• Andrew Nixon says court ruling was not inevitableLiverpool may not have seen the last of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, according to the sports lawyer Andrew Nixon.The American owners today lost their high court bid to block the football club's proposed £300m sale to New England Sports Ventures, with Mr Justice Floyd telling them it would be "inappropriate" to appeal against the decision. Despite that warning, a bid to overturn the verdict still remains a possibility if Hicks and Gillett take the case to the court of appeal. However Nixon, an associate for Thomas Eggar LLP, believes Hicks and Gillett are more likely to launch a claim for damages against Liverpool in order to recoup some of their financial losses."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," Nixon said. "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."The judge arrived at his decision by declaring that in attempting to sack two members of the Liverpool board with the intention of replacing them with their own men, Hicks and Gillett had been guilty of the "clearest possible breach" of a contract they had signed with RBS as part of a refinancing agreement last April. However Nixon does not believe the verdict was guaranteed to go RBS's way."With a contract in place no verdict is inevitable," he said. "It's easy to say in hindsight that this would happen. But the contract clearly provided evidence to the court in favour of the Liverpool board and it was always going to be hard for Hicks and Gillett to argue around that. They signed it to say that they would agree to any decision made by the board. They tried to argue that a sub-committee was involved and so the board had breached the contract before they did, but the court has seen it the other way."LiverpoolBusinessguardian.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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Football League: your thoughts QPR's victory failed to disguise Cardiff's superiority while a former Arsenal trainee took Dover to the third round of the CupIt seems Neil Warnock and Dave Jones might not like each other that much. At the very least their post-match press conferences at Loftus Road after Queens Park Rangers' 2-1 top-of-the-table Championship victory over Cardiff City provided a bracing alternative to the usual comfortable clubbiness, with both managers carping on about unawarded penalties and launching pre-emptive strikes towards whatever the other might suggest in their absence.Jones in particular was incandescent over Kevin Friend's failure to award a penalty in the 85th minute for what looked like a trip on Jay Bothroyd. He even suggested Cardiff might have gone on to get a winner. If this seemed optimistic you could understand his frustration. Cardiff were the better team overall, if not in terms of goals scored and territory in the second half, then in terms of passing and controlled football.Their dominant spell towards the end of the first half provided the classiest passage of the match and of the two teams it is Cardiff who look currently better equipped to thrive at the higher level if – or probably when – they both get promoted. Rangers are unbeaten because they have an excellent defence (and they should hurl a percentage of their transfer trust fund at buying Kyle Walker from Tottenham), because they have great energy and purpose and are expert at set pieces. Cardiff have more clarity to their style and, already, a dusting of class in midfield and attack.Having said that, the match was settled by a moment of brilliance from Adel Taarabt, the Moroccan who is entrusted almost single-handedly with providing a gloss of butterfly-ish guile to Rangers' attack. Taarabt's winning goal was expertly taken. It was also typically Taarabt-ish in that it was the high point of a scattergun performance. He is a Championship-level attacking genius: give him 10 chances to create something and one will end up in a wonderfully worked goal. At a higher level he will rarely get such a wealth of opportunities.Craig Bellamy was also excellent today, and altogether more direct in style. Not yet fully fit, he worked hard, looked typically jet-heeled and finished neatly after a terrible mistake by Kaspars Gorkss. Bellamy will get sharper: if he stays fit it he has the dead-eyed quality to light up the Championship and ensure that, of these two, it is Jones who leads the way in May. BRTalking points• The decision for Hull City to play in white today was either inspired or absurd, depending on your perspective. Their game against Middlesbrough took place in a near-blizzard, meaning that players were often hard to pick out against the snow. Many felt the game should have been called off, but those fans who chose to tough it out at the Riverside were treated to a richly entertaining game, which ended in a 2-2 draw.• At one point this looked set to be the day of the underdog in the second round of the FA Cup. With more than 80 minutes gone, FC United, who currently play in the seventh tier of English football, led 1-0 away to the League One leaders Brighton, while the Conference National side Tamworth were 2-1 up away to Carlisle United, another League One side. But FC United, playing with 10 men from the 70th minute after the sending off of Scott McManus, were eventually pegged back and eventually needed a Sam Ashton save from Elliot Bennett's penalty deep into stoppage time to preserve a draw that earns them a home replay. Tamworth were less fortunate, conceding twice in the last four minutes to lose 3-2.• One non-league side was able to complete their upset, however, Conference South Dover Athletic beating League Two Aldershot through two goals from the former Arsenal trainee, Adam Birchall. The striker hadn't scored since his team's first-round win over Gillingham, but he seems to be enjoying the FA Cup run – including the qualifying rounds he has now scored 11 goals in this year's competition. Dover weren't the only non-league side to reach the third round today, though – in an all-Conference National clash, York City beat Darlington 1-0 to reach the third round. PBQPRCardiff CityChampionshipFA CupBarney RonayPaolo Bandiniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
World Cup 2018: David Beckham 'confident' England can win crunch vote in Zurich David Beckham positive he can 'make a difference' to England's World Cup chances in Zurich this week. telegraph.co.uk |