Liverpool takeover saga not over according to Tom Hicks
Former Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has said the takeover process at Liverpool has some unfinished business and is set to step up legal proceedings.
New England Sports Ventures finally completed their purchase of Liverpool yesterday evening, relieving Hicks and George Gillett of their powers at Anfield.
The £300million deal was short of Hicks and Gillett’s valuation of the club, and following a High Court ruling favouring the Royal Bank of Scotland, their creditors, they were forced to leave.
Hicks and Gillett have planned to claim $1.6million in damages, but this has since been dropped. However, in an exclusive interview to Sky Sports News last night, Hicks has refused to back down and will challenge Liverpool and the High Court.
“I'm shocked, devastated, frustrated. We are being very careful to make sure we follow the High Court rules but I'm very disappointed. It's hurt my family tremendously. This very valuable asset has been swindled away from me in an epic swindle. I'm very angry about it,” he said.
“I have been working very hard to solve the issue. We know there are better owners around the world who should own Liverpool Football Club than the Boston Red Sox group (NESV). We knew who they were and were frustrated every time we had conversations with them.
“Our desire was to have Liverpool in the hands of the right and proper next owner who could build the stadium and make Liverpool the top club in the world that it deserves to be,” Hicks added.
Royal Bank of Scotland had set a deadline date for October 15th in which the £237m loan used by Hicks and Gillett to buy Liverpool with back in 2007 to be repaid in full otherwise the club would enter administration and face a nine-point penalty.
Hicks believes he and Gillett were the subject of a witch-hunt which made the fans’ reactions difficult to handle. “I accepted the club was going to be sold back in April, the question was when,” he said.
“The Royal Bank of Scotland wanted it done the day after and there was no reason for that. Liverpool were a very healthy financial performing club. There was a bit too much debt, no question, but we were going to fix that.
“We were frustrated by others. I think the right owner would have paid Gillett and Hicks a fair price and would have had the resources to spend on players and the stadium,” said Hicks.
Hicks revealed the funds were available to pay back RBS in full, and believed they were prevented in doing so by Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton, in which he described as a “conspiracy.”
“We did have the funds available to pay off RBS in its entirety. But between RBS and the chairman and the employees that conspired against us, we could not pay off the debt,” he said.
“I know exactly why that was, they had the ability to. This was an organised conspiracy and it went on for months. It consisted of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Martin Broughton - who wanted a good PR event in his life because he's a Chelsea fan, he's not even a Liverpool fan - he wanted to be seen as the guy who got rid of the Americans,” Hicks added.
Both Hicks and Gillett have vowed not to give in and wants both sides of the story to be heard. “I just want the truth to come out in the courts,” said Hicks.
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