No Wonder Europeans Hate Americans

At first... I was really excited to see the influx of American owners into the English Premier League. I was even under the overly optimistic impression that it would pick up the interest of (proper) football in America if owners of American sports teams got involved.

I've changed my mind. Don't get me wrong, in terms of ownership, Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner has done a fantastic job since he bought the Aston Villa Football Club. The quality of player, coach, and performance of the club in general are all up and I believe he serves as a model owner.

My main problems are with the Glazers, who are owners of Manchester United and with Tom Hicks and George Gillett, soon to be former owners of Liverpool. Both of these owners brought significant amounts of debt into these clubs and that debt continues to grow. Both are also refusing to accept the offers of prospective new owners who would completely relieve them of their debt and leave the clubs in a better place.

Hicks and Gillett are the principal offenders in my crosshairs today. Hicks and Gillett, through the Kop holding company, which manages LFC's operations, owe the Royal Bank of Scotland 240 million GBP on the principal note they took when they bought the club, as well as 40 million GBP in late fees, which culminate in an October 15th deadline to pay the note off or the club will enter administration (bankruptcy proceedings). In the last week a circus has played out, in which Hicks and Gillett have, after entering into a contract with RBS to allow new chairman Martin Broughton to find a suitable buyer and sell the club, with which H&G would not interfere.

Early this week, it was revealed that Broughton and the LFC board had accepted a 300 million GBP offer from NESV (New England Sports Ventures), a company owned by Boston Red Sox owner John Henry. After the Premier League found that he was an acceptable owner, Hicks and Gillett attempted to block the sale, in blatant violation of their contract with RBS. They found that the club was undervalued by half of what it's worth, while NESV offered money to pay off the note and add money to the club's severely lacking transfer budget. Is the club really worth twice what the debt is when you're carrying liabilities like that? How can H&G honestly expect to make a profit on a business loan they're nearly defaulting on (and in fact already have defaulted). This is a simple case of greed, where the owners are looking for money where none is deserved or probably exists at all.

Add to this, that after the High Court found that the sale was to go ahead, the trouble twins got an injunction from a Federal Court in Texas to prevent the sale from going through. A blatantly dilatory tactic which the High Court today rightly found had no binding power on an English Court, and furthermore had nothing to do with Texas. In summation, there are really some fine American owners both at home in the broad, but Tom Hicks and George Gillett make them look practically horrible. Good luck to John Henry and the rest of NESV, I think it's evident from what they managed to do with the Red Sox that they are committed to creating a winning atmosphere.