Source: Liverpool_Echo
LFC board at war as multi-millionaire John W Henry bids for the club
The Shankly Gates at Anfield 300[LNB]WAR has broken out in the campaign to rescue Liverpool Football Club from its ownership crisis.[LNB]The club issued a dramatic statement late last night saying it has received two top class bids to buy the Reds.[LNB]But hours before an Anfield board meeting was called to discuss them yesterday, American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett sensationally tried to sack managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre.[LNB]Instead the Americans tried to replace the Reds' two top boardroom executives - both lifelong Liverpool fans - with their own new people - Mack Hicks and Lori Kay McCutcheon.[LNB] Mack Hicks is the son of Texan Tom Hicks senior, while McCutcheon is vice-president and financial controller of Hicks Holdings.[LNB]The ECHO can confirm one of the bidders for the Reds involves the owner of the Boston Reds Sox baseball team, John W Henry, a multi-millionaire Wall Street trader.[LNB]The second bidder is from Asia but is not linked to Kenny Huang, who led a Chinese consortium interested in investing in Liverpool this summer.[LNB]The ECHO understands a sale is very close, unless Hicks and Gillett succeed with their legal challenge to the make-up of the board.[LNB]The fact that it is two members of the Hicks camp the owners are trying to shoehorn on to the board also suggests George Gillett's influence at Anfield is now minimal.[LNB]No-one at Anfield would today comment, confirm the claims or discuss any details at all regarding the official statement issued.[LNB]All three key parties - Hicks, Gillett and the three remaining board members - have consulted lawyers to try to break the stalemate.[LNB]The ECHO understands meetings continued all night at Anfield, with the non-owners on the board clearly maintaining control of the club's official website which issued last night's extraordinary statement.[LNB]It read: "The Board of Directors have received two excellent financial offers to buy the Club that would repay all its long-term debt.[LNB]"A Board meeting was called today to review these bids and approve a sale.
