London, England (CNN) -- A British High Court judge ruled against the American owners of Liverpool Football Club on Wednesday in their bid to stop the team's sale to a U.S. group.
The judge said Tom Hicks and George Gillett had no right to veto the sale and refused their right to appeal.
Hicks and Gillett had gone to court Tuesday to fight the team's acquisition by New England Sports Ventures (NESV), the owners of baseball's Boston Red Sox.
The club's board approved the deal last week without the consent of Hicks and Gillett as a way to rescue the club from its financial problems and put it back on a winning path.
Hicks and Gillett, however, said through their lawyers that superior offers had been on the table and were not chosen. They have said they feel the offer by NESV does not match their valuation of the club.
Liverpool's board -- headed by chairman Martin Broughton, whom Hicks and Gillett hired to find a buyer -- had agreed to accept an offer of £300 million ($477 million) from NESV.
While the deal would pay off the bank's debts to the Royal Bank of Scotland, it would also mean that Hicks and Gillett would lose $130 million on the deal.
CNN
