Judge not, for ye shall be judged
True, we didn’t have a bewigged Lord Chancellor from Iolanthe trilling away that “the law is the true embodiment, of everything that’s excellent.”
But we did have some of the Kop standing in the precincts singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” That’s normally a showstopper rather than an overture but Liverpool fans like to do things their way and they’re a pretty good chorus even at the worst of times.
We can leave a day of intrigue in Court Number 16 – just how many interested players are there around this table now... NESV, Mill Financial, Meriton, Peter Lim, he of the chain of Manchester United-themed bars in the Far East – to the finely-honed jurisprudential faculties of Mr Justice Floyd.
And given the complexity of this case it’s likely that M’Lud (Westminster, Trinity College Cambridge; interests listed in Debrett’s as cycling, walking, tennis, watching cricket and Austin Seven motor cars) will need a brain the size of the planet if he is to cut through the swathe of financial mumbo-jumbo, claim and counter-claim and high-power advocacy, and reach a decision which could result in the Reds being prised from the grasping clutches of their owners before they default on their loans.
Mr Justice Floyd – who has previously delivered judgements on a patent challenge involving Henry the Hoover and a legal quarrel over a Stella McCartney perfume – is unlikely to care whether Stevie G and company end up as Liverpool Red Sox. This is a fine matter of corporate governance of the kind that is food and drink to top lawyers.
Not that the High Courts are strangers to resolving sporting disputes. As long ago as 1963 in Eastham v Newcastle United, the skilful Arsenal inside-forward blew apart the FA’s feudal “retain-and-transfer” system which stipulated that clubs could retain a player’s registration (which prevented them from moving to another team) while refusing to pay them if they had requested a transfer.
Eastham, an elegant player who went on to be part of England’s 1966 World Cup squad and perform with distinction for Stoke before moving to South Africa where he coached black children, cut an impressive figure in the witness box.
“We had virtually no rights at all. It was often the case that the guy on the terrace not only earned more than us – though there’s nothing wrong with that – he had more freedom of movement. People in business or teaching were able to hand in their notice and move on. We weren’t. That was wrong,” he said afterwards.
This restraint of trade was comprehensively demolished by even the archly conservative Mr Justice Wilberforce to such an extent that the clubs retreated in disarray and the foundations were laid for the modern transfer system.
Judges 1 Football Establishment 0.
That in turn was subject to another radical change, led this time by the European Court of Justice in 1995, which ruled in the case of Jean-Marc Bosman that it was illegal for UEFA to create artificial restrictions on the number of EU players which could be fielded by a team.
Judges 2 Football Establishment 0.
But possibly the most acrimonious sporting dispute, before Royal Bank of Scotland v Hicks and others, came in a seven-week case in 1977 when the legality of Kerry Packer’s plan for World Series Cricket was tested in an action brought by three of his star players – England captain Tony Greig, South African all-rounder Mike Proctor and fast bowler John Snow – against cricket’s governing body. The authorities were trounced with the judge ruling they had stretched the concept of loyalty “too far.” That’s a sentiment which many Liverpool supporters might have shared yesterday while at the same time thinking that, for one day only, it might have been useful to have had Fred “The Shred” Goodwin playing for their side and demonstrating a Damascene conversion against leveraged buy-outs since his days spent at the helm of RBS.
No matter. Liverpool FC were fielding Lord Grabiner, the star centre forward of Britain’s commercial Bar, a sort of Fernando Torres in silks. The current chairman Martin Broughton, who cannily had it written into articles of association when he took over that he could be the only person to block a sale, has played a blinder despite, another delicious irony, his lifelong association with Chelsea where he is a season ticket-holder. If he wins his case expect to see plenty more of those “we saved your history” banners at Stamford Bridge the next time the Reds are in the capital.
Yesterday’s hearing was in the Chancery Division, the courts satirised by Charles Dickens in Bleak House when the inheritance dispute between Jarndyce and Jarndyce took so many generations to resolve that the legal costs devoured the whole estate and all the principal characters either lost their minds or died.
Mr Justice Floyd plans to give his judgement at 10.30am today. That clears the way for the club to settle its debts by Friday if he finds in their favour. And, importantly, it’s before 4.00pm at Goodison Park on Sunday.
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