I really don't remember much of this at all... guess it was 12 years ago
The Liverpool chairman, Martin Broughton, today promised the club's fans "a bright future" after Royal Bank of Scotland won its legal battle to force the club's owners,
Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to reconstitute the board and so allow a sale to proceed.
After Mr Justice Floyd ruled that Hicks and Gillett had breached their contract with RBS, the bank owed the majority of the club's £237m debt, Broughton said a board meeting would be convened that could result in the club being in new hands by tonight.
In a damning verdict, the judge ruled that in trying to sack two board members and replace them with their own appointments, they had been guilty of "the clearest possible breach" of a corporate governance agreement they signed as a condition of a refinancing arrangement with RBS in April.
Under that agreement, Broughton was installed to oversee the sale of the club and the duo recognised that only he could change the make-up of the board and they promised not to interfere in the sale process.
The judge, who said it would be "entirely wrong" to grant a counter-claim from Hicks and Gillett designed to postpone the £300m sale of the club to Boston Red Sox owners New England Sports Ventures, ordered Hicks and Gillett to produce papers allowing the board to be reconstituted by 8pm tonight.
The pair, who stand to lose more than £100m in loans made to the club if the sale to NESV goes through, will also have to pay costs estimated at between £250,000 and £500,000.
"We will get the board reconstituted by 8pm this evening and have a board meeting soon after that. We will continue the sale process," said a jubilant Brougton.
Asked whether the club would be in new hands by tonight, he said: "There is a board meeting this evening to determine whether or not that is the case."
Hicks and Gillett will be invited to attend by conference call, but the 3-2 majority in favour of Broughton, managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre means that they will be able to complete the sale process, subject to legal advice.
Broughton said the board would take legal advice on whether it could proceed with the sale to NESV as planned in light of a later, higher offer from Singapore businessman Peter Lim.
But given his confidence that the board followed a diligent sale process with the assistance of Barclays Capital – it emerged in court that around 130 expressions of interest were whittled down to the two final contenders – a sale to the Boston Red Sox owners appears by far the most likely outcome.
The board will also take legal advice on whether to proceed with a parallel legal process seeking a declaratory judgment from the court to rubber stamp the sale. That may now be unnecessary given today's verdict but if goes ahead, the judge said it should be heard on October 21.
The judge said it would be "inappropriate" for Hicks and Gillett to appeal, but the option of an application to the Court of Appeal remains open. They admitted breach of contract but claimed they had been driven to it because they had been frozen out of the sale process by the "English directors", who considered themselves "the home team" and behaved in a "secretive" manner. They claimed that full consideration had not been given to higher rival bids, with the board favouring NESV's offer.
Keith Oliver, a lawyer at the duo's solicitors Peter & Peter, said he was consulting with Hicks and Gillett on their next steps.
"We are disappointed by the judge's determination on the application and Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett will now be considering their next steps," he said.
NESV's chief, John W Henry, posted a message on Twitter. "Well done Martin, Christian & Ian," he said. "Well done RBS. Well done supporters!"
Had the sale been blocked, RBS may have felt administration was the only option when the loans became due on Friday, which would have incurred a nine-point penalty for the club from the Premier League.
The judge said that the ongoing damage to the club in the light of continued uncertainty and the potential impact on its sale price of a nine point penalty that was a factor in deciding the case today rather than going to a full hearing.
