LiverPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

IS BACK! DING! DONG! HICKS IS DEAD! Figuratively speaking at least. High court in England granted the injunction RBS was seeking against Hicks (and Gillette for that matter). The NESV sale will go through. Within hour you can expect PINK Liverpool merchandising including pink flags, pink hats, pink kits, pink paper weights, pink toboggans, AND best of all PINK BOBBLEHEADS of BIG POOPIE in a Liverpool kit, all with shipping detail for the Northeast United States. Hmmmmmmmm.

All things considered though, the NESV deal should flow through as expected prior to Friday, meaning POOL won’t be swimming at the bottom of the table below sea level. That would translate to -3 points for all those not familiar with a simple subtraction of 9 from 6. Things may be looking brighter over the rainbow. The new owners just need to follow the yellow brick road.

LiverSTOOL (Updated 10/12/2010)

Today the high court convened in London to discuss the dispute between RBS and Hicks/Gillette Holding Company regarding the sale of Liverpool and the attempt by Hicks & Co to overthrow the board and supplant cronies. RBS’s argument rests on the fact that Hicks & Co violated their contractual arrangements in the covenants set forth with RBS. They cannot overthrow board members. RBS needs to be repaid their some 200 million pounds of debt supplied to Hicks/Gillette. Hicks’ attorneys admit the violation of the agreement. (Bloody brilliant!) However, their attorney states that they did so because the board excluded them from negotiations of the sale and that there are stronger bids available. Fact of the matter is that at the time of agreement, the NESV deal was in fact the strongest bid as determined by the board after reviewing some 130 odd submittals. (WOW - looks like everyone and their mother attempted to purchase Liverpool FC) New deals submitted within the past 48 hours would NOT warrant additional negotiations. (Sorry Mr. Lim) Also, per documents submitted as evidence, Hicks/Gillette were made aware of negotiations and had an attorney representing them present. The judge ended the affair by saying a judgment issued by Friday would be ‘ambitious’. Seriously? This is what is wrong with the legal system in general. Open and shut case. He must be accepting money from Hicks/Gillette that they will ultimately have to pay back to RBS anyway… Well judgment will be passed tomorrow AM after all at 10:30 (that’s London time so 5:30 AM Eastern Standard Time) Until then…

Euro Qualifier – Spain in Glasgow

Craig Levein needs to spice it up. Seriously Craig? I read this great quote in the Guardian bright and early this AM – Spain “are probably the best team that we have ever played.” Duh. Come on Craigy. They are the reigning Euro 2008 Champions and the 2010 World Cup Champions. No way! Best team you have ever played? You don’t say. Craig then elaborates further that he would like to get a goal or maybe even two goals. Real inspirational stuff here Craig. Someone needs to call up Al Pacino and get him in there for an adaption of his famous INCHES IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE speech from Any Given Sunday. Either that or the Scottish fans invade the pitch and somehow manage to hurt… AHEM… scare the Spanish players… Though I doubt they will fear the Scots much, especially fabled captain Scotty Brown. Look for this to be an exciting game to finish 2-0 or 2-1 in Spain's favor with Villa hitting form and scoring his 45^th goal in his countries colors, passing Raul all time.

LiverSTOOL

Just when things couldn’t get more complicated they did. The ongoing saga of Liverpool football club just took another interesting twist. A brief synopsis will bring us to the present on the current situation. Hicks/Gillette holding company (which owns the STOOL) defaults on their debt with RBS. RBS in turn allows them to refinance in the short term with certain convenants in place requiring the two clowns to sell the club by the time the debts come due again. Broughton is appointed to oversee the sale of the club. Two bids come in and the SAWX-ownership (NESV) has the winning bid. Hicks panics. Pulls an obviously illegal move given the aforementioned new covenants and tosses Broughton and Purslow (current GM of the team) from the board and plants his 20-something brat son along with his business partner (ahem mistress, but with no evidence of this) as members of the board to block the sale. Today the courts FINALLY ruled that this was not allowed. Sorry Tom. BUT just when things were looking to get wrapped up tomorrow, the second bidder a Singapore billionaire (net worth rumored at 1.6 bill), says he would like to rebid given the current circumstances and would pay more… Oh the plot thickens over on the Merseyside… All the while the courts will rule tomorrow on whether the sale can go through and the upcoming DARBY match at Goodison lies in the distance accompanied by possible administration and a 9 point deduction. Oh boy. If there was ever a time the club supporters don’t want to walk alone, it is now. - TheBish

The Portland Mikes Hard Lemonades and The Orlando Oranginas to Join the MLS 2011

Following the New York Red Bulls, Portland and Orlando have decided to continue the trend of beverage owned soccer clubs. Hailed as the best thing to happen to US soccer since the retirement of Cobi Jones, the shift to be not just a soccer club but also a full time marketing machine was realized. Mark Avery GM of the newly founded Portland 'Mikes Hard Lemonades' was over the moon about the venture in his press conference..."we could not be prouder of our complete and total enslavement I mean ownership by the Mikes Hard Lemonade company... there will be many great things to come from this type of collaboration." After the conferance I had a chance to sit down with Mr. Avery:

NYF: Mark with this new deal in place what will be MHL's involvment with the club?

MA: Well, we saw how the Red Bulls took their sponsorship to the top with logos all over the field stands and jerseys. We are going to go well beyond what NY has done. The stadium will be bulit from MHL bottles, the jerseys will not only have the logo on them but will be cut to look like a refreshing Mikes Hard. And the players will have nothing but delicious MHL on the sideline to fuel them to a championship.

NYF: Great!

Bro's Spill off the Party Porch on the World Cup Pitch

Uruguayan frat lords everywhere suffered today as the collars slowly fall down in soccer city.

NO DIVING

Not since Greg Louganis' 1988 Olympic performance have more dives been attempted on the road to victory. Hyperbole aside, the matches today were a disgrace to the sport and an embarrassment to 'giants' of world football.

First off a tip of the cap goes to the New Zealand, who's game today was elevated to a level unseen ever by the All Whites in a WC final. Not since the 2002 America's Cup has the world seen such a fight between the Italians and Kiwis. They bravely fought off 15 corners, but also did not sink to the pathetic faining and flopping of the Italians. In the 29' the Italians saw their off season work at the Meisner acting studio pay off when a penalty was awarded by FIFA official Batres. The pen. came off a quick tangle in the box where a slight tug on the kit by Tommy Smith some how left De Rossi without the use of his legs. (see 0:43) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHo1glTgI50

The Azzurri went on to dominate position (72%) and the rest of the match, yet still even against the one of the lowliest ranked appointed it was distressing to see the Italians fall back to "second division" tactics.

Ivory Coast v. Brazil - The last match of the 9th WC day left me and I hope many others in disgust. The World Cup (like the Olympics) is meant to be a showcase for the best players and sportsmen of the highest class. Brazil has a long and proud tradition of being THE team at every world cup, and SA 2010 is no different. From a team that showed so much skill and strength against a defensively stalwart North Korean side, to what was seen in the second half of the match today was shameful. Brazil was not all to blame of course as it does take two to tango, yet as FIFA's #1 ranked team they have a duty to present football to the world in its best and purest form. The 'Golden Squad' truly did not live up to its moniker. A recap of the match minutes paint a disparaging picture of the class of Brazil.

50'-(Goal) Luis Fabiano took the ball from his hand, (first infraction) then to his bicep (second chance to make a call) before playing it to his right foot. The shot and play was top quality yet the Henry-esque set up was blatantly and terribly illegal.

64'- Studs up challenge on a sliding Elano, this is where the game began to turn. A point where the ref should have called both captains in and spoken to them. (Should have been a yellow)

85'- Kaka's first yellow. No need to take this yellow, a full push to the back of the IC midfielder. They are already heading to the round of 16 and up by 2 with 5' to go. Why take the yellow in to the next round?





88'- The perfect example of why you don't take a late yellow on a dead ball foul. Kaka put himself in this situation, Lannoy's eyes were on the striker after his first booking. Anything can happen and it did, Keite's dive was a disgrace but Kaka was not attempting to remove himself from any altercation.

All the while Dunga was raving like a madman, disputing every call, and as one of the ESPN commentators noted 'fanning the flames'.

My final look at this match- I would argue that Brazil was keen to the fact that Lannoy was buying into every simulated foul as they perpetrated a multitude of them in the final 15' of the match. Yet, they failed to understand that the West African squad was also going to garner the same treatment. Which the world saw in the 88' with Kaka's second yellow and sending off.