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Accusations fly as Liverpool court case begins

Liverpool fans have been critical of the club's owners © PA Photos

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Proceedings to decide the future of Liverpool FC began in the High Court on Tuesday with barristers accusing Tom Hicks and George Gillett of "breathtaking arrogance" during their ownership of the club.

Royal Bank of Scotland, the club's major creditors after lending Hicks and Gillett the money to buy the club back in March 2007, have taken the duo to court to force through the £300 million sale - sanctioned by their man on the Liverpool board Martin Broughton - to New England Sports Ventures.

Hicks and Gillett are opposed to the sale and the key issue in court 16 of London's Royal Courts of Justice is who has the necessary authority to agree a takeover.

The Liverpool board was reconstructed in agreements Hicks and Gillett were party to when the Americans were forced to seek a six-month extension with the RBS on their £237 million loan in April. The deal brought in Broughton as Liverpool's independent chairman, with powers to sell the club.

Hicks and Gillett rejected an offer by NESV to buy the club last week but Broughton and two other members of the board accepted. The American duo reacted by attempting to sack the board, an act that RBS lawyers told the High Court was a breach of clause C3 of their April agreement with regards to restructuring the board.

RBS barrister Richard Snowden QC then appealed to the judge, Mr Justice Floyd, to "restore a clearly constituted and functioning board" who could sell the club to potential new owners NESV and added: "It cannot wait and it would be wrong for Mr Hicks and Gillett to profit from their tactics."

The judge was asked to impose injunctions on the owners requiring them to restore the original constitutions of the companies and managing directors, therefore removing the final stumbling block to a takeover.

Hicks and Gillett's representatives countered RBS' opening comments by saying: "This case is not about the owners trying to maintain their ownership of the club ... The owners' issue is that the board did not properly enter into the NESV agreement in that the directors did not properly consider alternative offers and so it is they who are in breach of the terms of the sale agreement with RBS."

"This dispute then is about maintaining terms of the sale agreement: mainly that all alternative offers are properly considered by the board before an offer is accepted."

Another takeover offer arrived from Singaporean stockbroker Peter Lim on Tuesday morning as an alternative to the NESV deal favoured by RBS.

RBS' £237 million to Hicks and Gillett is due for repayment on Friday.

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