TAKEOVER COMPLETE - H & G Finally Jibbed!

Liverpool Football Club - General Discussion

Postby roberto green » Thu Sep 23, 2010 10:30 pm

Good one that!!

:)
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Postby Tim LFC » Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:40 am

A Texas Tycoon Learns a Lesson: Don't Mess With Liverpudlians


Tom Hicks Owns Flailing U.K. Soccer Club; Fans Take Anger to the Bank—Literally


In the old days, English soccer hooligans settled scores with knives and broken bottles. As Texas billionaire Tom Hicks is learning this week, the weapons of choice these days—camera phones, Twitter and spam emails—can be almost as scary.

Adam Eljarrah, top, was able to greet the team's owner with an angry poster in New York via a global fan network including Alan Kayll in Liverpool, bottom.


Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal
Liverpool fan Adam Eljarrah


Thomas Kavanagh
Alan Kayll in Liverpool

Mr. Hicks, co-owner of England's hallowed Liverpool FC, is on the run from a mob of angry fans who blame him for the team's tailspin. The 118-year-old club was one of England's best when he bought it in 2007. Since then, the crippling debt load he took on to buy Liverpool has strained the team's finances and contributed to its woes on the pitch.

Now, Liverpool faithful are waging a fierce campaign to evict the American owner. Their strategy: Scare away banks and other financiers who might throw Mr. Hicks a lifeline, starving Mr. Hicks of needed cash and forcing him to sell. To do that, they are using the tools of the digital age to track Mr. Hicks' efforts to drum up money, then bombard would-be lenders with thousands of irate emails, phone calls and Tweets.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Hicks learned firsthand what it's like to be the prey in a digital hunt.

Around 3:40 p.m., as Mr. Hicks sat on a sidewalk bench in midtown Manhattan, he was spotted by Liverpool native Paul Wilson. It occurred to Mr. Wilson, a 35-year-old financial consultant, that the offices of Deutsche Bank AG and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. were on the same street. He guessed that Mr. Hicks and his son, Tom Hicks Jr., might be visiting the banks to plead for funds.

So Mr. Wilson whipped out his BlackBerry, snapped some photos, and zapped the images to his wife, Erin McCloskey. Then he trailed Mr. Hicks walking into the lobby of the building that houses Deutsche.

"I didn't throw my coffee on him, but the thought did cross my mind," Mr. Wilson said Wednesday.

Ms. McCloskey quickly posted the photos on Twitter and explained the circumstances.

Over in Liverpool, the Hicks sighting was like an open-net goal for Alan Kayll, a 40-year-old cab driver who is a ringleader of the anti-Hicks campaign. Mr. Kayll quickly penned a form letter to J.P. Morgan and Deutsche officials urging them not to help Mr. Hicks refinance roughly £200 million ($313 million) that is owed to Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, stemming from his purchase of the team.

"If you join Tom Hicks in raping and pillaging Liverpool Football Club, then you will be making a very powerful enemy," his letter read in part. "You are facing an energized, well-informed mass of Liverpool fans from around the world."

He posted the letter online, along with the email addresses of executives at Deutsche and J.P. Morgan.

An hour later, a senior J.P. Morgan executive had already received 30 emails from Liverpool fans, with new messages landing every few minutes. "It's totally viral right now," the executive said, deleting emails as they arrived. Public-relations staff at Deutsche said they received hundreds.

Neither bank is in talks with Mr. Hicks, said people familiar with the situation. Through a spokesman, Mr. Hicks declined to comment on Tuesday's events or his stewardship of the team.

The team's financial woes have hurt its performance. Liverpool finished last season in seventh place, a disaster for fans accustomed to being in England's top four. A team official said this week that the cost of servicing its debts is depleting club resources. Fans argue that makes it tougher to recruit top players.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, the melee was just beginning. Adam Eljarrah, an 18-year-old Liverpool fan attending New York University, saw Ms. McCloskey's Twitter messages. He showed up outside Deutsche's skyscraper on Park Avenue. The pre-med freshman carried a poster, popular among Liverpool supporters in England, declaring that Mr. Hicks and his co-owner are "Not Welcome ANYWHERE."

Mr. Eljarrah says he loitered outside the building for about 45 minutes, hoping to confront Mr. Hicks. Around 6:30 p.m., Mr. Hicks emerged. According to a person familiar with the incident, the younger Mr. Hicks spotted Mr. Eljarrah—identifiable in his red-and-white Liverpool scarf—and told a nearby cop: "This guy is trouble."

As the police officer intercepted Mr. Eljarrah, he says, he waved his sign and yelled, "Get out of our club!"

Liverpool fans aren't the only ones lashing out at American ownership. Manchester United fans have mounted a campaign against the family of American businessman Malcolm Glazer, which owns the team and has loaded it with debt.

In Liverpool, fans who are angling to remove Mr. Hicks are sporting scarves bearing a "Thanks But No Yank$!" slogan.

Lately, financial institutions have borne the brunt of Liverpool's rage. Fans have been flooding RBS with letters and phone calls urging the bank to seize the club and give Mr. Hicks the boot. Top executives' inboxes sometimes have been hit with several hundred emails per day.

A few weeks ago, some fans started a Facebook page encouraging people to boycott RBS. Mr. Kayll, the cab driver, drew up lists of financial institutions Mr. Hicks is believed to have approached, posting them on a website he helps run that urges fans to help oust Mr. Hicks.

The site features an image of a blood-drenched RBS logo. The site's motto: "We will go as far as we need to."

Despite the site's menacing slogan and graphic, Mr. Kayll says his group is "totally against violence. We're a group of passionate fans trying to save their football club. All professional people with families."

The campaign hit Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder of Blackstone Partners, whose GSO Capital Partners hedge fund considered participating in a deal to help Mr. Hicks refinance the RBS loan. By Monday, GSO had backed out of the talks. A Blackstone spokesman, Peter Rose, said the emails (including thousands aimed at Mr. Schwarzman) didn't affect GSO's decision not to participate in the deal.

That wasn't the message Mr. Kayll got. Driving his cab in Liverpool Tuesday morning, he says he received a call from London-based GSO executive Michael Whitman. Mr. Kayll says Mr. Whitman told him GSO lost interest in part thanks to the pressure campaign. "He said, 'We understand the passion of Liverpool supporters and obviously took that into consideration,'" Mr. Kayll says.

Mr. Whitman didn't respond to requests for comment. Blackstone acknowledges that Mr. Whitman and Mr. Kayll spoke, but deny he said the email campaign forced GSO out of the deal.

Still basking in victory hours later, Mr. Kayll was euphoric when the Hicks photos from New York dropped into his lap. He crowed: "We know his every move."

—Sara Schaefer Muñoz and Dan Fitzpatrick contributed to this article.
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Postby fivecups » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:08 am

Tim LFC wrote:A Texas Tycoon Learns a Lesson: Don't Mess With Liverpudlians


Tom Hicks Owns Flailing U.K. Soccer Club; Fans Take Anger to the Bank—Literally

This is from the WALL STREET JOURNAL website.

Possibly one of the best articles I've ever read.

THIS S'HIT IS WORKING!!

Lets keep it up!

:buttrock  :buttrock  :bowdown
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Postby Tim LFC » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:11 am

fivecups wrote:
Tim LFC wrote:A Texas Tycoon Learns a Lesson: Don't Mess With Liverpudlians


Tom Hicks Owns Flailing U.K. Soccer Club; Fans Take Anger to the Bank—Literally

This is from the WALL STREET JOURNAL website.

Possibly one of the best articles I've ever read.

THIS S'HIT IS WORKING!!

Lets keep it up!

:buttrock  :buttrock  :bowdown

Indeed this should show people we can achieve something with our protests.
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Postby Ciggy » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:35 am

fivecups wrote:
Tim LFC wrote:A Texas Tycoon Learns a Lesson: Don't Mess With Liverpudlians


Tom Hicks Owns Flailing U.K. Soccer Club; Fans Take Anger to the Bank—Literally

This is from the WALL STREET JOURNAL website.

Possibly one of the best articles I've ever read.

THIS S'HIT IS WORKING!!

Lets keep it up!

:buttrock  :buttrock  :bowdown

Hicks will be sick reading this and the article from the NYT  :laugh:  well in fellow reds see the emails do work.
There is no-one anywhere in the world at any stage who is any bigger or any better than this football club.

Kenny Dalglish 1/2/2011

REST IN PEACE PHIL, YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.
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Postby Greavesie » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:40 am

Good effort everyone

This stuff makes me proud to be a Red
All round the fields of Anfield Road
Where once we watched the King Kenny play (and could he play!)
Stevie Heighway on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
'Bout the glory, round the Fields of Anfield Road

JFT 96 - Gone but never forgotten
YNWA 15/4/1989
God Bless You All
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Postby Ciggy » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:44 am

New York Times: Liverpool Fans Mount New Offensive Against Hicks

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010....t-hicks


Liverpool Fans Mount New Offensive Against Hicks
September 23, 2010, 1:27 PM

How much do Liverpool Football Club fans dislike the team’s owner, Thomas O. Hicks?

They’re sending blast e-mails to scores of American reporters to get their message across.

In one of the impassioned e-mails — which references the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain — the apparent fan despairs of Mr. Hicks’s ownership and efforts to raise money to help keep the team. (The Blackstone Group reportedly pulled out of talks to finance his bid.)

The e-mail is below:

Dear USA Media Executive/Outlet

*We gave you THE BEATLES and this is how you repay us?*

What happened to the *’Special Relationship’ *between the US and the UK?

Are you aware of how *Tom Hicks* is driving our beloved *Liverpool Football Club *into the ground?

How would you like it if a British “businessman” came over to the USA and destroyed the New York Yankees. Or the LA Lakers. Or the Washington Redskins?

Well, we are living Wayne Huizenga and the Florida Marlins all over again!

Please Google *”Tom Hicks + Liverpool”* to see what an embarrassment he is to the USA.

We would be grateful if you could help us by reporting our story in order that me might persuade Wall Street NOT to lend him the money he is currently trying to raise, to drive our football team into even more debt and despair.

Sorry about the mass email approach but we have tried everything else, and we feel like we are at the end of the road.

Thanks in anticipation

Fans of Liverpool Football Club
There is no-one anywhere in the world at any stage who is any bigger or any better than this football club.

Kenny Dalglish 1/2/2011

REST IN PEACE PHIL, YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.
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Postby Tim LFC » Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:07 am

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2010/09/liverpool_supporters_take_aim.html

Another one.
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Postby roberto green » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:02 am

Well we mightn't be getting results on the pitch but we are certainly getting the results off the pitch.

Well done everyone!!

:)
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Postby roberto green » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:09 am

You know what though cigg I sent an email to SOS about ideas against ousting Hicks and one of them was to target the American media i,e newspapers but was unsure about the legal side of it. But it looks like someone has took it up. I'm not sure whether it was my exact idea but it certainly looks like it could of been. I had a response from Kyle Percy thanking me for my suggestion and inviting me to a meeting.
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Postby dundreamin » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:13 am

Thomas o hicks you have picked on the wrong club.we won,t just lie down and die. We are passionate and very proud. WE ARE LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB. get out now you CANNOT win.YNWA
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Postby roberto green » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:27 am

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Postby sixbuster » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:34 am

A great lift to everyone this, we have momentum now. Lets keep it up now.:blues:
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Postby Waldo » Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:01 pm

Awesome work all.
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Postby Waldo » Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:07 pm

Anfield rapper wrote:The price to the club of getting rid of the two :censored: may be a 9 point deduction.


Why RBS looks set to own Liverpool FC
Robert Peston | 08:43 UK time, Thursday, 23 September 2010

For those interested in owning Liverpool FC, the important calculation is this one: do they want to pay a premium and buy the club and business now, for something between £420m and £600m, or do they want to wait until it is in the hands of its banks, in the hope of securing Liverpool for more-or-less the £280m value of its bank debt (which includes £40m of penalty fees)?

 
Many would say that harsh commercial logic dictates only one answer.

With the 15 October deadline looming for Royal Bank of Scotland, Liverpool's main creditor, to decide whether to take control of the club, most bidders would surely prefer to wait for the fire sale.

Which is why it looks increasingly likely that Liverpool will - before too long - be the property of Royal Bank of Scotland and the US bank Wachovia (which provided around 25% of the bank debt).

There remain big imponderables, however.

One is whether Royal Bank of Scotland can take control without the business falling into administration - which would lead to a nine-point deduction for Liverpool to its Premier League tally (and, right now, would leave it with an interesting minus four points, which is a bit surreal).

As I understand it, lawyers are beavering away on behalf of RBS to investigate whether the bank can take control while avoiding administration.

Also, for the avoidance of doubt, RBS wants to own Liverpool like Superman craves kryptonite. If, in mid-October, RBS does end up formally in charge, its plan would be pass the club on to a new owner as quickly as humanly possible.

Finally, here's where those figures of £420m to £600m come from for the price tag if you want to buy Liverpool before the fire sale:
• £600m is what the two US owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett would like for the bank debt and their equity. It would value their equity at more than £300m, providing them with a handsome profit.
• £420m would recoup for Hicks and Gillett the £140m odd they've put into Liverpool's holding company, Kop Holdings, via their Cayman Islands vehicle. It would, in essence, give them their money back without a profit.

There may be some Liverpool supporters who feel it is worth paying Messrs Hicks and Gillett somewhere between £140m and £320m to spare Liverpool FC the humiliation of falling into the clutches of its banks - although the evidence of the fans' blogs and websites appears to be that most supporters would in fact rather stick pins in their eyes before handing a profit to the US duo.

I doubt, however, that any of those supporters have a spare £500m lying about that they don't need right now. Which is why it's a pretty fair bet that RBS will end up owning Liverpool (for a bit).

If (and it's a BIG IF) the lawyers can negotiate a clause that means we don't go into administration as a result of the bank taking us over then me it sounds like the best route for us now is to fall into the hands of RBS.

- Yanks would be out by default
- Price to buy club would drop
- LFC would be more attractive to potential buyers

However the worry for me is; would the existing board (who I believe have the interests of the club at heart) remain in place and be able to negotiate a deal with a prospective buyer or would, as it reads on the article, it literally become a fire sale whereby RBS would take the best price from anyone. Then we end up getting sold to some f*ckin idiot like the ones who have bought Pompey over the past 2-3 years  ???
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