Liverpool High Court Hearing To Be Held On Tuesday After RBS Gain Injunction Against Board Member Firings

Liverpool's hearing to decide if NESV can finally take over the club, will take place at 10:30 am on Tuesday, at the High Court.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, who are the club's major creditors, have taken the case to court to ascertain a legal decision on whether NESV's proposed takeover of the Reds is legal.

One of the club's current American owners, Tom Hicks, is contesting the legality of the sale because he says board members Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre were sacked before they and chairman Martin Broughton agreed to the sale of the club to NESV (New England Sports Ventures).

Broughton, Purslow and Ayre agreed to the sale despite owners George Gillett and Hicks voting against it, and the Premier League subsequently approved the new owners. But the dispute over the status of the board had thrown the takeover into some doubt.

RBS have now revealed that they obtained an injunction against Hicks on Friday, preventing him from changing the make-up of the board (by removing Purslow, Ayres and Broughton) until after the case had been heard.

They are claiming Hicks and Gillett breached their agreement with the bank by attempting to remove Broughton, the British Airways chief, after all parties agreed to his appointment in April so he could find a suitable buyer for the club.

"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," a statement from the bank reads.

"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 tomorrow [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."

The sale will likely go through as planned if the court finds in favour of RBS. If Hicks is successful in his argument, however, he will have to find a new buyer before the bank's crucial loan deadline of October 15 or the club could fall into administration.

The American owners are unhappy with the sale to NESV because they will leave the club without a return on their £140 million investment.

NESV's takeover will completely wipe out the debts owed to RBS by Gillett and Hicks, including the interest payments owed on the debts.

The case will take place in Court 18 in front of Mr. Justice Floyd. Liverpool fans are expected to go travel to London to protest against the American owners.