This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Liverpool's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, have tonight claimed that a Texas court has granted a temporary restraining order stopping the proposed sale of the club to the owners of the Boston Red Sox, calling the attempt to sell the club an "epic swindle".

Hicks and Gillett claim they will sue the three Liverpool board members, the bank controlling the club's debt and prospective buyer New England Sports Ventures for a total of $1.6bn (£1bn) in damages. The pair said that NESV's offer to buy Liverpool was "hundreds of millions of dollars below true market value".

The statement came while NESV's John W Henry was meeting the three English board members in central London to ratify the sale.

Earlier today a high court judge definitively ruled against Hicks and Gillett in a move that was expected to precipitate the sale of the club as early as tomorrow.