| Soccer: Judge Rules Against Attempt to Bar Liverpool Sale New England Sports Ventures moved one crucial step closer Wednesday to taking over ownership of Liverpool Football Club. feeds.nytimes.com |
Fans have new heroes after court victory Martin Broughton's stock has rocketed in the eyes of the club's supporters after his victory against Tom Hicks and George GillettLiverpool is littered with heroes and this morning, a few minutes after 11 o'clock, their supporters greeted some more. As Martin Broughton, the club's chairman, stepped out of Court 18 of the Royal Courts of Justice, followed by his fellow directors Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, and the trio's legal team, they were met by roars of approval from waiting men carrying Liverpool scarves and shirts emblazoned with Liverbirds. It was a curious sight but a wholly appropriate one given the momentous victory that had just been achieved.Unrelenting despair has come to characterise this once mighty football establishment but after events at the high court today, Kopites can truly start dreaming of better times to come. That is because after a case spreading over two days and taking in more than six hours of legal arguments, Mr Justice Floyd has ruled that Liverpool's current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, can no longer continue with their attempts to block a sale of the club, most likely to New England Sport Ventures, owners of the Boston Red Sox, who had a £300m bid for the club accepted last week before Hicks and Gillett tried to derail the process by replacing Purslow and Ayre with two of their own cohorts.The case against Hicks and Gillett was not actually brought by Liverpool, but instead by the Royal Bank of Scotland, who are owed close to £235m by the Americans, the deadline for which expires this Friday. They deemed the actions of the pair as a breach of an agreement signed in April, which gave them the finances to extend their control at Anfield in exchange for an agreement that the Americans would allow Broughton, appointed by RBS, to see through a sale of the club within six months."Breathtaking arrogance" was how Richard Snowden QC, representing RBS, characterised the conduct of Hicks and Gillett in trying to block the sale of Liverpool to NESV. It was "as clear a breach of contract as you will ever see" he went on to say yesterday in a packed Court 16, where the case initially started. During the course of that day, a catalogue of counter evidence was heard which turned this already stupefying sporting saga into one of even greater drama and intrigue. Paul Girolami QC, representing Hicks and Gillett, admitted they had breached their sales agreement with RBS but claimed they only did so because Broughton, Purslow and Ayre, the other members of Liverpool's five-man board, had overlooked two other offers for the club, from the Singapore billionaire Peter Lim and Mill Financial, a US hedge fund which is understood to have assumed control of Gillett's stake in the club. Girolami accused the "English directors" of excluding Hicks and Gillett from the sales process and creating their very own sub-committee, which they were accused of referring to in emails as "the home team."This accusation, among many other put forward by Girolami, was dismissed not only by Snowden but also Lord Grabiner QC, the much-experienced, much-respected and, at times, amusing representative for Liverpool. He claimed the "home team" reference was simply the name of a conference call line the board used to speak to bidders and described Hicks and Gillett as "slippery" for attempting to adjourn a meeting to discuss the NESV offer by a week knowing full-well that the group, headed by John W Henry, wanted an answer to their proposal by last Friday.All this took the case into another day and into the smaller Court 18. "It's as packed as the Kop" remarked one observer pressed up against the wall as Justice Floyd summarised the case and prepared to give his verdict. It duly arrived at about 10.40am when the judge granted RBS a mandatory injunction against Hicks and Gillett, preventing them from again trying to restructure the club's board and meaning Purslow and Ayre were back on it. He also threw out an attempt by the Americans to have an interim injunction placed on the board as well as ruling that they should pay the court costs for both RBS and the Liverpool board. Lord Grabiner estimates those costs will be between £250,000 and £500,000.In a final kick for Hicks and Gillett, who took over at Liverpool in February 2007 with promises of building a new stadium and ploughing millions into the club before reneging on both of those promises, their QC was advised by Floyd that it would be "inappropriate" of them to appeal the ruling. They may, however, still decided to do so.What now? Well, Broughton will reconvene a board meeting for 8pm this meeting for which, he stated clearly afterwards, Hicks and Gillett, are "certainly invited". That meeting is likely to confirm the sale of the club to NESV and it is hoped that the sale, which will clear the club's £200m-plus debts, can go through before Friday's deadline with RBS.All this begins to lift the dark, spreading cloud that has hung over Liverpool for over a year now. It also means they are unlikely to go into administration - the heaviest cost should Hicks an Gillett have won - and, as such, avoid a potentially devastating nine point penalty, which would have seen them go into Sunday's Merseyside derby against Everton bottom of the league on minus three points.There is no great evidence to suggest that NESV will be any better for Liverpool than Hicks and Gillett were but they cannot be any worse. Little wonder then that the supporters who gathered inside and outside the High Court today were so relieved to hear that the owners could no longer block a sale of the club, which it was widely accepted they were only doing in order to minimise their own individual financial losses and not, as they argued in court, for the benefit of the club they have seen to ruin.Fighting their actions throughout have been Broughton, Purslow and Ayre, who up to today have all been treated with great suspicion by Liverpool supporters. No more, however. "We love you Martin, we do" they chanted as the trio departed down Fleet Street. It was that type of day.LiverpoolSachin Nakraniguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
TFC mum on De Rosario's contract status One of the more interesting problems that might have to be addressed in the coming months by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns Toronto FC, is whether to give captain Dwayne De Rosario a raise. cbc.ca |
FIFA Should Postpone World Cup Vote, Watchdog Says ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA should postpone Thursday's vote to choose the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts and allow an independent investigation into corruption allegations, watchdog body Transparency International (TI) said on Monday. feeds.nytimes.com |
Five things we learned this weekend Tottenham's spirit mirrors Manchester United's in 1999 while Nani is stepping out of Cristiano Ronaldo's shadowTottenham have the belief of United in 1998-99Tottenham once again came from behind yesterday, this time to beat Liverpool 2-1, and are beginning to resemble Manchester United in their treble-winning season 11 years ago. Not perhaps in the quality of the players they have at their disposal but at least in the way they believe they can come back to win any game, whatever the scoreline they are trailing by. And yesterday Jermain Defoe (who has surely taken his last penalty for Spurs now) said in a newspaper interview that he is trying to infuse the United mentality at White Hart Lane."You have to believe you can win every game. I remember when I first got into the England squad, training was mad. The Man United players, even in training and in little five-a-sides, wanted to win every game. And if they didn't win, they were moaning and moaning; it was amazing. Sometimes they'd still be talking about it over dinner. I think that's a great thing to have and I think it's important that we get that."It is a long way to go – and nobody surely believes Spurs are going to win the treble this season – but they have done remarkably well so far. They are six points off the league leaders and through to the Champions League last 16. Not bad at this stage of the season.Sol Campbell is still a very good defenderThe defender's spell at Newcastle could hardly have got off to a worse start. Within days of turning up for pre-season training he called some of the club's fans 'idiots' after they had suggested he was overweight. "Don't they know I have just got married and been on honeymoon?" he fumed. "My message is simple to all the knockers: I am knuckling down and want to play my football with a great club and a great manager. Then you can judge me."Judging from yesterday's performance against the champions Chelsea, maybe it is time to give Campbell some credit. Aided by a composed Steven Taylor, his was a mosty assured performance blighted only by a cumbersome turn when Salomon Kalou scored the equaliser for the visitors. There were crunching tackles, good positioning and several towering headers. Considering he was up against Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, the 36-year-old did everything the manager, Chris Hughton, could have wanted from him.Arsenal won't win the league with an all-French back fourFor two consecutive Premier League matches Arsène Wenger has selected an entirely French back four: Bacary Sagna, Sébastien Squillaci, Laurent Koscielny and Gaël Clichy. The result? Five goals conceded. True, this is not Wenger's first-choice defence (he would rather have a free-scoring Belgian international in the centre but that free-scoring Belgian international seems to have disappeared from the face of earth) but it is not far from it.Would Johan Djourou been able to make much of a difference? Probably not. A week ago Arsenal conceded three against Tottenham and on Saturday they leaked two more against Aston Villa. They won one of the games but everyone knows you need a strong central defensive partnership to win the league (think Hansen-Lawrenson, Adams-Keown, Bruce-Pallister, Stam-anyone, Terry-Carvalho and so on) and Arsenal simply do not have that this season – even if they buy Gary Cahill in January.Nani is the new Cristiano Ronaldo (well, almost)LuÃs Carlos Almeida da Cunha was always going to be put in the spotlight when Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United. One Portuguese winger thrown in to replace another Portuguese winger. It was an unfortunate situation for Nani, who was always going to struggle in comparison with Ronaldo. But, after three fairly inauspicious seasons with United, he is finally making important contributions.Nani has five league goals this season (as many as in the two previous full campaigns) and, even more importantly, he has set up a further 10 goals for United in the league this season. That is two more than anyone else in the league. United have always relied on midfielders scoring goals and this season (especially with Antonio Valencia injured and Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes getting forward less often) it may be Nani's turn to be the main man.Post-match press conferences are a waste of timeMost managers will always try to defend their players (step forward Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson in particular) but what is the point of post-match interviews when what is said is clearly gibberish? Step forward Roberto Mancini, who after Manchester City's 1-1 draw away to Stoke City said: "We played very well and deserved to win. We played some fantastic football in the second half."Fact one: City did not deserve to win because they were pretty abject for at least 45 minutes. Fact two: City were not fantastic in the second half. They had some good passages of play but fantastic is Barcelona's first 20 minutes at Arsenal last season. City were nowhere near that. And by the way Tuncay Sanli is far too good a footballer to be spending most of his time on a substitutes' bench.Premier LeagueSol CampbellNewcastle UnitedManchester UnitedArsenalStoke CityRoberto ManciniManchester CityTottenham HotspurMarcus Christensonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |