LFC board at war as multi-millionaire John W Henry bids for the club Read More http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/10/06/lfc-board-at-war-as-multi-millionaire-john-w-henry-bids-for-the-club-100252-27410865/#ixzz11X2y3Oty LFC board at war as multi-millionaire John W Henry bids for the club Oct 6 2010 By John Thompson & Ben Schofield Comments (5) Recommend (3) * 1 * 2 * next The Shankly Gates at Anfield The Shankly Gates at Anfield 300 WAR has broken out in the campaign to rescue Liverpool Football Club from its ownership crisis. The club issued a dramatic statement late last night saying it has received two top class bids to buy the Reds. 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. 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. Mack Hicks is the son of Texan Tom Hicks senior, while McCutcheon is vice-president and financial controller of Hicks Holdings. 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. 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. The ECHO understands a sale is very close, unless Hicks and Gillett succeed with their legal challenge to the make-up of the board. 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. No-one at Anfield would today comment, confirm the claims or discuss any details at all regarding the official statement issued. All three key parties – Hicks, Gillett and the three remaining board members – have consulted lawyers to try to break the stalemate. 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. It read: "The Board of Directors have received two excellent financial offers to buy the Club that would repay all its long-term debt. "A Board meeting was called today to review these bids and approve a sale. Shortly prior to the meeting, the owners – Tom Hicks and George Gillett – sought to remove managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre from the Board, seeking to replace them with Mack Hicks and Lori Kay McCutheon. "This matter is now subject to legal review and a further announcement will be made in due course. "Meanwhile Martin Broughton, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre continue to explore every possible route to achieving a sale of the Club at the earliest opportunity." The hugely dramatic development clearly pitches at least two of Anfield’s non-owner directors – Purslow and Ayre – publicly against the American co-owners. Hicks and Gillett are due to repay their loans – belatedly taken out to buy the club three years ago – later this month. Last week Purslow made it clear in an interview that the Reds’ non-owner directors would firmly resist any bid by the Americans to refinance those loans. Hicks and Gillett are, it seems, furious that a coup attempt is now being made to drive them out of Anfield, without them getting the huge profits they had hoped for from a sale of the crisis-hit club. The pair, who have been the target of a long-running fans campaign to oust them led by the Spirit of Shankly and others, agreed publicly to sanction a sale of the club in spring after an offer of investment from the New York based Rhone group (£110m for 40%) was rejected by them. It all means the battle for the future of Britain’s most successful ever football club may well now be fought out in the courts, who must decide who holds sway going forward – Hicks and Gillett or Purslow, Ayre and Broughton. British Airways chairman Broughton was brought in by Barclays to oversee the sale process. Liverpool are currently paying between £30m and £40m a year in crippling interest payments to service the Hicks and Gillett loans. Today fans union Spirit of Shankly said supporters will want to probe any bidder to make sure the club ends up in the right hands. James McKenna, spokesman for SoS, said: "Liverpool is engulfed in a board room war. "The club statement underlines the need we have – Hicks and Gillett aren’t good enough for Liverpool Football Club."
