'History shows £300m takeover was right decision'

FORMER Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton admits the disastrous tenure of Tom Hicks and George Gillett as owners led to initial concerns over accepting an offer from fellow Americans Fenway Sports Group.

- By PAUL GORST

It's 15 years this week since FSG, then known as New England Sports Ventures, purchased Liverpool for £300m to bring an end to a difficult period in the club's history under Hicks and Gillett, whose controversial stewardship led the club to the brink of administration.

Broughton was appointed chairman in April of 2010 to help facilitate a sale and met with John W Henry, now Liverpool's principal owner, later that year with Tom Werner, who has since succeeded the London businessman in the role at Anfield.

In an exclusive interview with the ECHO, Broughton says he admired what FSG had achieved with the Boston Red Sox baseball team at the time and believed they could be a good fit at Liverpool.

He did, however, concede there was some hesitation over the nationality of the prospective new owners due to the strength of feeling from the fanbase towards Texan Hicks and Wisconsin native Gillett.

“Yes, there was concern,’ Broughton says “That was the one big negative: they were American!

“Because the placards from the fans at the time were: ‘Yanks Go Home? It wasn’t just ‘Tom and George Go Home!

“So bringing in some more ‘Yanks’ was something we thought about. Yes, there was some concern. But I felt that actually, despite being American, they were the right people.

“What I liked about them was their key values were in place. Tom and John are two very different characters.