# What exactly is going on with Liverpool FC? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 14, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183 "2010-10-14T21:44:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183/1 "2010-10-14T21:44:14Z")
I read on the website [football 365](http://football365.com) about a British Court overturning a US courts injunction against a sale and to be quite honest I can’t make sense of it. It would be cool if there was a site that had it all laid out, but I am either too dumb to find one or to figure it out. Can anyone help? Why are the American owners trying to prevent a sale of their club in the courts and why is someone else trying to sell it? Also, Liverpool is in the relegation zone? Oh my! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183/2 "2010-10-14T22:01:42Z")
Also curious. I’ve never been a huge footy fan, but I have always been a Liverpool fan. I give even less of a shit about footy than I used to (prefered to be doing it than watching other people do it) but I still wonder what the hell is going on. I see random posts on facebook from my brother (who is a massive fan) and I wonder (mildly) what they mean. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183/3 "2010-10-15T08:38:43Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I read on the website [football 365](http://football365.com) about a British Court overturning a US courts injunction against a sale and to be quite honest I can’t make sense of it. It would be cool if there was a site that had it all laid out, but I am either too dumb to find one or to figure it out. > > Can anyone help? Why are the American owners trying to prevent a sale of their club in the courts and why is someone else trying to sell it? > > Also, Liverpool is in the relegation zone? Oh my! The [Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_F.C.#Sale_to_Gillett_and_Hicks) seems to have a reasonable summary of it, but the short form seems to be that, since buying the club, Gillett and Hicks have run it into a mountain of debt. The creditors (chiefly RBS) went to court to force them to sell up, and are favouring a bid by New England Sports Ventures. Gillett and Hicks reckon that the asking price is too low, meaning they won’t see much of a profit for all their hard work in running the club into the ground, so they’ve sought injunctions to stop it. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183/4 "2010-10-15T13:47:35Z")
He successfully ran the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars into the ground. The first year where he wasn’t making the ownership calls for the Rangers, they made it past the first round of playoffs for the first time. On a limited budget. He can rot. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183/5 "2010-10-16T17:26:48Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Also curious. > \*\* > I’ve never been a huge footy fan, but I have always been a Liverpool fan.\*\* I give even less of a shit about footy than I used to (prefered to be doing it than watching other people do it) but I still wonder what the hell is going on. I see random posts on facebook from my brother (who is a massive fan) and I wonder (mildly) what they mean. Naturally 🙂 The Guardian followed this sorry tale in all its glory - live blogging of the court case etc. If you go to their [sports pages](http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport) you should be able to pick up on the links. If you want to hear what the lumpen kopitariat have to say about it, [this](http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/) is the principal RS forum and is free to read. [NSFW - contains dangerous levels of crass sentimentality and feeble posturing] ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-going-on-with-liverpool-fc/557183/6 "2010-10-16T17:40:24Z")
I don’t understand how this debt thing works. From this situation, and the case of Man U, it seems that you can amass huge personal debt, buy a company such as a football club, somehow transfer your personal debt to the company, sell the company, and in a single bound you are free! Shame about the football club, but there you go. If this is really how it works, then I can see how it attracts amoral twathead businessmen. I’m quite tempted to buy, say, Torquay United myself, maybe it could pay off my mortgage.