• Premier League

RBS wins injunction against Hicks and Gillett

ESPN staff
October 11, 2010
The future of Liverpool is still up in the air © PA Photos
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Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton has arrived at the High Court, just hours after Royal Bank of Scotland announced it has obtained an interim injunction preventing Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett from sacking chairman Broughton and two other board members.

Broughton is trying to push through a sale of the club before Friday's deadline for a loan to RBS, the club's main creditor having lent Hicks and Gillett the money to buy the club in March 2007, needs to be repaid. The chairman has a deal in place with New England Sports Ventures - the owners of Boston Red Sox - but Hicks and Gillett attempted to oust Broughton, managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre as they felt the £300m deal does not meet their valuation of the club.

A hearing is taking place at the High Court in London on Tuesday, but RBS said on Monday it had secured an interim injunction for breach of contract.

RBS said in a statement: "RBS in its capacity as lender to the Kop group of companies received the benefit of various contractual undertakings from Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett in relation to the corporate governance arrangements that Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett agreed would apply to the Kop group of companies with effect from April 2010.

"Those undertakings provided for the appointment of Mr Broughton as chairman of the board and the appointment of the chief executive and commercial director of LFC to the Kop boards. As is well known Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett purported to make changes to those corporate governance arrangements on 4 October. This was in breach of those contractual undertakings.

"In light of that purported breach of contract RBS sought and obtained on Friday 8 October 2010 an interim injunction against Mr Hicks and Mr Gillett until a further hearing scheduled [for Tuesday]. Among other things, that interim injunction prevents Mr Hicks or Mr Gillett taking any steps to remove or replace Mr Broughton from his position as chairman of the board of the Kop companies or from taking any other steps to appoint or remove any directors from the board of the Kop companies."

Hicks and Gillett agreed to RBS' demands in April to allow Broughton to have control of the sales process.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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