Liverpool board accepts bid from Boston Red Sox owners

Liverpool’s board of directors agreed yesterday to sell the English football giants to the owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, despite fierce opposition from the club’s current American owners.

The deal with New England Sports Ventures (NESV) is subject to approval by the Premier League and a legal battle with Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who bought the club three years ago and tried to scupper the latest sale.

“I am delighted that we have been able to successfully conclude the sale process which has been thorough and extensive,” Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton said in a statement on the club’s website.

If confirmed, the deal will signal the end of Hicks and Gillett’s turbulent three-year ownership of Liverpool, a proud sporting institution which remains the most successful club in the history of English football.

The American owners have been the subject of fierce protests from Liverpool fans, who have blamed them for a steady decline in the club’s on-field fortunes and failure to deliver on a promised new stadium.

New manager Roy Hodgson has also had limited funds available to rebuild a squad which failed to qualify for the Champions League last season, another embarrassing blow for the five-time European champions.

Hicks and Gillett were under pressure to sell the club with an October 15 deadline looming for repayment of their 282-million-pound loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia.

Liverpool were put up for sale by the unpopular duo in April, who initially sought an asking price of around £800 million, a figure that they subsequently dropped to £600 million.

The pair on Tuesday night attempted to remove two senior figures from the club’s board of directors before a meeting to review two offers, one from NESV and the other reportedly from Asia.

In a dramatic twist late Tuesday, Liverpool released an unusual statement saying that Hicks and Gillett had tried to oust managing director Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre from the board.

Hicks wanted to replace them with his son, Mack Hicks, and a close associate, Lori Kay McCutcheon.