Source: PA
Broughton confident sale will be completed
Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton is confident the club will win their legal battle against owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to allow the sale of the club to go ahead.
Although a £300million deal to sell to New England Sports Ventures, the owners of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, was announced on Wednesday morning, Hicks and Gillett are opposed to the plan and will challenge the board's authority to push it through.
That means the issue will have to go to court but Broughton, who was brought in to oversee the sale process in April and alongside managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre outvoted the Americans three-to-two in support of the sale to NESV, is optimistic of success.
"The key thing is the court case," he said. "We need to go to the court to get a declaratory judgement, which is for the court to declare that we did act validly in completing the sale agreement, and then the buyers can complete the sale.
"We have to get Premier League approval and I'm certain that's not going to be an issue. There are one or two minor things like that but the key issue is the court, which should meet I would think next week sometime. That is the most likely time, in short order. There is an appeal process but that is also very fast.
"If they (Hicks and Gillett) win the court case they can block the sale but then we may have one or two other thoughts in mind as well. I am confident. I wouldn't have taken the board through that process yesterday if I hadn't been confident. I wouldn't have exposed everybody to that risk if I hadn't been confident, but you can never be certain. These things are legal judgements. We have been properly advised and I am confident."
