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• Admits to stalemate with lenders over sale of club
• Had hoped deal would be completed by 19 April

The Liverpool co-owner, Tom Hicks, has hit a brick wall over the sale of his Major League Baseball club, Texas Rangers. On the field at Fenway Park before the Rangers played the Boston Red Sox last night, Hicks said the dispute is over what the lenders think the Rangers are worth.

Hicks, who along with George Gillett has hired Barclays Bank to lead the search for a buyer for Liverpool, said he had hoped the sale would have been completed by opening day (4 April) or by 19 April.

“The lenders have to agree with baseball and the buying group that it’s the right price,” Hicks said. “There is some concern that they think somebody will pay a higher price. That’s what the dispute’s all about.”

The sides announced an agreement on 23 January, but creditors of the Hicks Sports Group, which owns the Rangers and the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars, have not approved it.

“We’re not really involved in it because we don’t get any of the proceeds,” Hicks said. “It all goes to the lenders.”

“I thought it would be done by opening day. I thought it would be done by 19 April. Right now, we’ll all just have to wait and see. There’s nothing I can do.”

The Rangers’ sale must be approved by three-quarters of the 30 teams before it can be finalised. The original asking price had been for around $600m but the sale is expected to realise a lot less.

MLBUS sportLiverpoolguardian.co.uk

• Shareholding in baseball expected to raise nearly £350m
• Uncertain whether funds will be invested in Liverpool

Liverpool’s co-owner Tom Hicks has agreed to sell his majority shareholding in the Texas Rangers baseball team but doubts remain over whether the American will reinvest funds from the deal in the Merseyside club.

Hicks is expected to receive close to $500m (£350m) for the franchise, which he has owned through Hicks Sports Group since 1998, from a consortium headed by the Pittsburgh-based attorney Chuck Greenberg and the legendary former Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan.

The deal must first be approved by Major League Baseball and creditors of Hicks Sports Group but is expected to be finalised by 5

• Hicks Jr resigns and apologises for ‘harmful words’
• Co-owner says ’summer window will be big’

Tom Hicks remained bullish in the wake of his son’s resignation from Liverpool today when he pledged a “big” summer in the transfer market at Anfield and replaced the outgoing director with another Dallas-based ally.

Hicks’s son, Tom Jr, bowed to pressure to relinquish his directorship of Liverpool and its parent company, Kop Holdings, following the furore over the obscene email he sent to a Liverpool supporter in a row over Rafael Benítez’s spending power.

His place on the board has been taken by Casey Coffman, vice-president of Hicks Holdings and the chief operating officer of Hicks Sports Group, while Liverpool confirmed that Philip Nash and Ian Ayre, the club’s chief financial officer and commercial director respectively, have been appointed directors.

The departure of Hicks Jr was announced this morning after he sent an abusive email to a supporter whom he told to “Blow me fuck face”. It is understood the Liverpool director offered to resign when the controversy erupted on Saturday night, with the supporters’ union, Spirit of Shankly, demanding his resignation and describing his position as untenable, before the decision was ratified 24 hours later.

A statement issued on behalf of Hicks Jr read: “I have great respect for Liverpool Football Club, especially the Club’s supporters. I apologise for my mistake and I am very sorry for my harmful words. I do not want my actions to take away from the Club’s future; therefore I am resigning from the Board. To the fans and to the Club, please accept my sincerest apologies.”

Unsurprisingly, given their determination to remove Hicks and George Gillett as owners of Liverpool, the Spirit of Shankly group welcomed the American’s decision to step down. A spokesperson said: “This club has standards; on the field, off the field, on the terraces and in the boardroom. The standards we have seen exercised in the boardroom have been unbefitting of this great club since Hicks Jr, his father, George Gillett and other associates arrived at the Club with false promises.”

The dispute between Hicks Jr and the supporter, Stephen Horner, was prompted by last week’s revelations that Benítez will have little to spend in this transfer window even if the Liverpool manager raises more than £15m through player sales. The club has so far raised £6.4m by selling Andriy Voronin and Andrea Dossena to Dynamo Moscow and Napoli respectively and are also hoping to offload Philipp Degen and Ryan Babel before the end of the month. Benítez has resisted efforts to cut his losses with Babel, however, amid concerns his budget will stretch no further than the proposed £1.5m signing of Maxi Rodríguez from Atlético Madrid and possibly one other loan deal.

Liverpool officials say Benítez’s budget is a sensible approach to the difficult January transfer market and revenue raised now will be reinvested in the squad in the summer. The Liverpool manager has already started preparations for next season, with the Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh a target on a free transfer.

That stance was echoed by Hicks himself today when, shortly after the announcement of his son’s resignation, he responded to another supporter’s inquiry about transfer plans with the email that, in hindsight, Hicks Jr should have sent to Horner. The Liverpool co-owner said: “Our debt is very managable (sic) [see Man U] and we never use player sales for debt service. Our interest on £200m is about £16m. The new stadium will be the game changer. Christian [Purslow] is working very hard on it. Jan is a poor-quality market. The summer window will be big.”

Purslow, Liverpool’s managing director, is engaged in a worldwide search for new investors in the club as Hicks and Gillett seek an equity raise that would reduce their shareholdings but enable work on the proposed stadium in Stanley Park finally to begin.

LiverpoolPremier LeagueRafael BenítezAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk