16 October,2010 08:13 AM IST | | AFP
New England Sports Ventures (NESV), owners of baseball's Boston Red Sox, completed their acrimonious 300 million pounds (480 million dollars) takeover of Liverpool Football Club yesterday.
John W Henry's NESV group were able to take control after Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were defeated in their legal battle to stop the takeover.
Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton brokered the deal despite fierce opposition from Hicks and Gillett, who have claimed they will sue for 1.6 billion dollars in damages because they believe the sale to NESV undervalued the Premier League club and was "illegal".
Broughton was delighted to have finally brought the sale to a conclusion after a dramatic week that included court battles in England and America.
He said yesterday: "As every Liverpool fan knows, the most nerve-wracking way to win a match is in a penalty shoot-out but in the end, as long as you get the right result, it is worth the wait. And we have got the right result."
Standing alongside Broughton at the central London office of lawyers who drew up the paperwork to finalise the deal, Henry drew cheers from Liverpool fans as he said: "I am proud and humble. We have a lot of work to do and I can't tell you how happy I am that we have reached this point."
