(CNN) -- Liverpool's American owners will contest the English football club's proposed sale in the British High Court on Tuesday, and if they win it could see the five-time European champions put into administration.
Tom Hicks and George Gillett want to block the club's acquisition by New England Sports Ventures (NESV), the owners of baseball's Boston Red Sox, as they feel it does not match their valuation of the club.
Liverpool's board, headed by chairman Martin Broughton -- who was brought in Hicks and Gillett to find a buyer -- agreed to accept a £300 million ($477 million) offer from NESV last week.
However, that would mean Hicks and Gillett face losing $130 million on the deal, having bought the club for £219 million ($348 million) in February 2007.
Their problems have stemmed from the debts they incurred in financing that deal, and the club -- which was saddled with those costs -- may be put into administration if the Americans win the court case and fail to pay off a $377 million loan to Royal Bank of Scotland by Friday.
CNN
