'We have found right owners for Liverpool'

Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton hailed a "great day" for the club after a deal was concluded with New England Sports Ventures for a £300m sale.

The finalities will depend on a legal challenge by owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who want a higher price, but one hurdle has already been overcome with the Premier League prepared to give their go-ahead to the deal as early as tomorrow.

Broughton is confident things will progress and the prospective new owners, an American sports investment company which has revitalised the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise, will not burden the club with huge debt as Hicks and Gillett had done.

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"This is a great day for Liverpool Football Club and the supporters," said Broughton, who feels an exhaustive process has led them to the right new owners.

"I can understand why there might be an instant reaction about them being American. But being American is not a problem; leveraged ownership of a football club is the problem.

"I just hope we can deliver what we have set out to do. We have found the right owners. There will be money to invest in the squad.

"It is all about winning, that is their philosophy.

"You have to look at what they have done. This is all going to be about not 'What we promise to do' but to see what 'We do actually do' on their part.

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"If you look at the Boston Red Sox, they have taken a major traditional team, previously successful but not at their peak, and resuscitated it to be a winner.

"They understand winning on the field helps winning off the field and makes the investment an attractive investment and they have a track record to prove it.

"They have been the most successful team since acquiring the Red Sox in 2001 – there are parallels with Liverpool."

Broughton also feels NESV will provide much-needed cash for transfer funds and would look at building a new stadium or possibly redeveloping Anfield.

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The deal agreed with NESV will see Liverpool freed of 200m of debt with 37m of "external debt" – a typical working overdraft facility – remaining.

It would also mean Hicks and Gillett would lose 140m as the NESV acquisition would remove the burden of the acquisition debt, effectively paying off most of what was owed to Royal Bank of Scotland, but the money the Americans themselves put in a holding company would not be covered.