Liverpool soap opera arrives at the High Court

The Liverpool soap opera comes to London today as the club's owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett go to the High Court to try to block its sale to the owners of the Boston Red Sox, New England Sports Ventures (NESV).

A deal with NESV was agreed by the chairman of the Liverpool board Martin Broughton last week with support from two other board members, chief executive Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre. They outvoted Hicks and Gillett three to two to accept the offer of £300m from the American group.

That prompted Hicks and Gillett to try and sack Purslow and Ayre from the board, a move that was blocked by an interim court injunction taken out by the Royal Bank of Scotland, to who the club owes £237m.

RBS's debts are due to be repayed by Friday and if they are not then a further £60m in fees could be added to the debt and Liverpool may go into administration.

If the NESV deal does go through then the spectre of administration should be avoided as they have pledged to pay off the existing debts in full. However, by selling for £300m Hicks and Gillett would leave Anfield well out of pocket after three years in charge. The pair stand to make a loss of almost £200m and they are objecting to the sale as they say it undervalues the club.

Although they were keen to offload the club they wanted as much as £600m.

In court RBS will argue that during a refinancing of the club's debts in April Hicks and Gillett gave chairman Broughton the sole right to appoint or remove directors from the board - meaning that his decision to sell to NESV deal would be watertight.

It emerged on Monday that RBS was granted an interim injunction on Friday, preventing Hicks or Gillett from making any fresh moves to replace Broughton or any of the other directors.

Liverpool, meanwhile, are seeking a definitive court judgment to confirm that the directors have the right to sell the club over the heads of the owners.

However, if there is no quick solution and Liverpool fail to clear their debts by Friday they are likely to be hit with a further financial penalty by RBS. That in turn could prompt NESV to walk away from the deal.

That could also lead to Liverpool going into administration. And if that happens then, under Premier League rules, they would be docked nine points, something that would leave them bottom of the league table and facing the prospect of a relegation fight.

It also came to light on Monday that there is a second bidder waiting in the wings should the NESV deal collapse. It is claimed that Singapore billionaire Peter Lim also made a £300m offer for the club and also agreed to pay another £200m to clear the club's balance sheet. However, his offer was overlooked in favour of the NESV bid.

Now Lim has pledged to step in if NESV pull out. Yet his position is self-serving. Hicks and Gillett are likely to call on Lim to prove that the club is worth more than what NESV are offering. That will bolster their case and could undermine the NESV deal leaving the way open for Lim to move in. ·