The allusion to the greatest night in the club’s recent history, when Liverpool beat AC Milan on penalties to win the Champions League, will raise hopes among long-suffering fans that they can finally put the troubled reign of Tom Hicks and George Gillett behind them and concentrate on matters on the pitch again.
“As every Liverpool fan knows, the most nerve-racking way to win a match is by a penalty shoot-out,” said Martin Broughton, the club chairman, who masterminded the sale to the owners of the Boston Red Sox for GBP300m.
“But in the end, as long as you get the right result, it’s worth the wait. We’ve got the right result.” During a week when they became as au fait with Texan writs, leveraged debt, corporate governance side agreements and the minutiae of company law as manager Roy Hodgson’s options on the pitch, Liverpool fans were last night celebrating the exit of Hicks and Gillett.
The pair, who have railed angrily against the sale, went down fighting, accusing the “British establishment” of “conspiring against them”. They accused the board of an “epic swindle” and furiously argued that the club was sold from under them for less than its true value. They will lose more than GBP144m in loans that they put into Liverpool.
Shortly after 1:00 p.m., when they withdrew a petition in Texas that had threatened to derail the sale process, thus allowing the deal to proceed, Hicks issued a statement saying they would continue to fight for up to GBP1bn in damages.
Following a week of bitter court battles on both sides of the Atlantic, Hicks yesterday morning had launched one last-ditch attempt to wrest control of the process in conjunction with the U.S. investment fund Mill Financial, but failed to derail the GBP300m sale to New England Sports Ventures (NESV).
With the Premier League and the club’s principal debt-holder, RBS, refusing to engage with Mill unless it went through the club’s board, it left Hicks in a catch-22 situation and NESV in the driving seat.
Its principal founder, John W. Henry, the owner who has helped Boston Red Sox to two World Series titles in recent years and has vowed to restore Liverpool to winning ways, emerged from the London offices of the club’s lawyers at around 4.30p.m. to announce the deal.
There had been a nervous wait for Wells Fargo, the U.S. bank that is owed GBP50m of a GBP200m loan due for repayment yesterday, to confirm receipt of funds.
RBS, the British bank that is majority owned by the taxpayer, had earlier confirmed that the GBP150m it was owed had been transferred, saving it from a difficult decision over whether to put the club into administration. One source close to the deal said Henry was “very twitchy” as the end of the business day neared, almost wearing out the carpet as he paced up and down in frustration.
“It’s too early to say what we’re going to do but we’re here to win,” said Henry when the deal was finally signed. “We’re the second highest spending club in major league baseball. We’ll do whatever’s necessary.” Studiously avoiding the hubris of Gillett and Hicks, who had arrived at Anfield in Febuary 2007 promising to begin work on a new ground within 60 days, Henry said: “We’re not going to have a lot to say, our actions will hopefully speak for us.” He revealed he would not attend the Merseyside derby at Everton’s Goodison Park ground tomorrow, but would wait until the home match with Blackburn a week later. He will be given a cautious welcome by fans who will wait for evidence of investment in the playing squad and a decision on a new stadium, as well as indications of fan representation on the board, before passing judgment.
“Liverpool FC have needed stability ever since Hicks and Gillett came in with their broken promises and lies. We need a period of stability and to get back to our old ways,” said a spokesman for the fans’ group Spirit of Shankly.
“Liverpool FC doesn’t need a Sheikh Mansour or a Roman Abramovich to compete in the transfer market: we generate enough money — which has, for the last three years, been used to pay debt.” Henry had previously arrived at the same City offices on Wednesday night, following a crushing high court victory for RBS and the club over Hicks and Gillett, who had sought to sack two directors and replace them with their own appointments to block the sale.
Copyright: Guardian News & Media 2010
