Texas court blocks Liverpool sale

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BILL RADKE: We told you last week the owner of the Boston Red Sox was about to buy England’s most successful soccer club. So why has a Texas court blocked the deal?

Here’s the BBC’s Alex Capstick.

ALEX CAPSTICK: Boston Red Sox owner, John Henry, flew in to London late last night to complete his purchase of the Liverpool soccer club. He’d been given the go-ahead to seal the deal early yesterday by Britain’s High Court. But at the last minute a court in Dallas Texas granted a restraining order to the current American owners of the Liverpool team, Tom Hicks and George Gillette. They claim the club had been dramatically undervalued.

Tom Kruse is an expert in litigation at the Texas branch of Baker and Hostetler. He believes that once the American court hears both sides of the story, the order will be lifted.

TOM KRUSE: Texas courts, like all American courts, have over a hundred years of precedent that we respect the tradition of other courts, including the British courts, and I think it’s going to be a fatal blow to this order eventually.

But it means the club’s in danger of missing Friday’s deadline to repay the Royal Bank of Scotland a $385 million loan. And if it misses that, then the bank can place Liverpool into the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In London, I’m the BBC’s Alex Capstick for Marketplace.