A load of merged Hicks threads

[Bender]

[Jimthered]

[Guest]

[el matador]

fekkin hell

[tomasjj]

:bird:

We are actually in charge.

[barnes10]

Royal Bank Of Scotland mutha fukka

[Vermilion]

9/10

[Icon]

More worrying than funny?

[Nicey]

......................wait a minute

[Tom]

Hicks previous football ****-ups

Thanks to Maldini from TLW for digging this stuff up. Share it around.
I'm sure that Rafa would have done his research on this ******, no wonder he went public.

http://www.playthegame.org/Knowledge%20Bank/Articles/The%20Magic%20in%20Brazil%20Soccer%20Corruption.aspx

There are other examples: a contract between Bank of America and Vasco da Gama was intended to cover twenty five years but lasted only two. Worst of all, perhaps, is the case of the Hicks group. This group is a hedge fund based in Texas and linked to President George W. Bush. Hicks took over two teams, Corinthians and Cruzeiro, through contracts that should have run until the year two thousand and ten.

These deals included promises of construction of new stadiums. Hicks also bought forty nine percent of the traffic television network and dreamed up its own ultimate soccer business: Hicks teams facing each other in matches broadcast, naturally, by Hicks. Hicks set up a cable channel in Latin America, PSN, acquired national basketball association rights, formula one races and soccer championships at overblown prices. Hicks invested about five hundred million dollars and in only two years filed for bankruptcy.

Maldini emailed the journalist and got this reply:

"Of course that the Group Hicks of Corinthians is the same. They also wanted to manage argentine clubs. I remember some years ago I wrote an article called Hicks vs Hicks by Hicks TV. Because they also founded a latinoamerican TV channell called PSN (Panamerican Sports Network). Many people believed it was a great excuse for money laundering. The payed 3or 4 times more the rights for Libertadores Cup, Formula One, NBA and so on, a lot of money. Friends from ESPN told me that it was imposible to make a good business with such a lot of money. Just one year and a half later PSN went on bankrupt. Cheers."

Other articles related to the above

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BEK/is_12_8/ai_67881225

Carlos Roberto de Mello, Corinthians' vice president for finances, says Hicks, Muse waited too long to reinvest the profits from the trades. "That hurt Corinthians' performance and irritated fans used to a better playing team," he says. He warns that the strategy may cut into future team profits if Hicks, Muse doesn't get busy building the team up again.

But Hicks, Muse's Pan-American Sports Teams President Richard Law defends the decisions. "The reality of any sports franchise is that teams go through cycles as players mature," he says. "Our job is not to turn back the inevitable, but to build Corinthians and Cruzeiro up from the junior ranks," referring to the teams' 16- to 20-year-old players.

A familiar story of a stadium that never got built:

As part of a separate deal, Hicks, Muse plans to build the club a new training center in early 2001 and a new 45,000-seat stadium in the next few years.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Corporate_Dossier/Globalisation_is_a_distant_dream/articleshow/2491724.cms

Meanwhile, the free flow of capital has resulted in foreigners investing in football clubs, often with disastrous consequences, such as when the American buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst bought Corinthians, Sao Paulo’s leading club.

Corinthians won the World Cup championships in 2000, but the club’s performance subsequently slumped and a political row ensued as fans began to protest about everything from player trades to changes in the colour of jerseys. Hicks, Muse exited three years later, following a row with its local partner.

Corinthians have just been relegated......

[Guest]

We should kick this cunt out. And quick.

[Slim]

Interesting stuff Tom.

I have a mate who is married to a girl from Dallas and lives out in Texas, and he warned me ages ago about Hicks' reputation for ruining different clubs in several different sports. He says he is widely hated by the fans of nearly ever club he has every been involved with for breaking his financial promises.

[Tom]

Hicks and his unethical busniness practices

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/tm_headline=tycoon-returns&method=full&objectid=18588846&siteid=50081-name_page.html

Tycoon returns

Feb 7 2007 By Nick Whitten, The Evening Chronicle
Tom Hicks

He'll now be singing You'll Never Walk Alone but scores of his former workers are still ruing the day his corporation walked out on them.

Tycoon Tom Hicks completed the £450m takeover of Liverpool FC yesterday along with fellow American George Gillet.

But the Chronicle can reveal he is a former chairman of Viasystems Group Inc, the parent company of Viasystems Tyneside Ltd which dumped 1,000 Geordies on the dole in 2001.

And to this day they have still not been paid their redundancy payments worth an average £27,000 each, with some payments running as high as £50,000.

Under a Viasystems redundancy scheme they should have received a set amount of money for every year they served with the company.

But workers have only ever received a statutory Government payout worth just 2p for every £1 they were owed.

Circuit board manufacturer Viasystems Tyneside Ltd went into administration in September 2001.

This forced the closure of its Longbenton factory and made hundreds redundant at its South Shields factory which was saved from total closure after a buyout by Circatex.

But today former workers reacted furiously to seeing Mr Hicks splash millions of pounds on taking over control of Liverpool.

Selby Armstrong, 67, of Mill Grove, South Shields, should have been entitled to £46,000 redundancy pay but received only the maximum £7,200 available from a Government "safety net".

He worked at the factory for 33 years as a chemist. He said: "I feel very bitter that he is still able to buy into this country.

"The company has left so many people such as myself without money. He is obviously not short of cash to buy Liverpool."

In 2004 the GMB union sent three former Viasystems workers to the Texas HQ to call for a meeting with Mr Hicks.

But they were unable to meet with Mr Hicks, one of the richest men in America and a close pal of President George W Bush.

Val Smith, 64, of Silverdale Way, South Shields was one of the three who visited the States. She said: "I just hope he treats them a lot fairer than how we were treated.

"I do not want to see Liverpool let down if the going gets tough. I worked at the plant in South Shields for 33 years. I look at him with the contempt that the company seemed to show our workforce."

Tom Ross, GMB senior organiser, who led the delegation to Texas said: "His former company's involvement in Tyneside has left a legacy of despair. People were expecting something but have got nothing.

"We went out there in 2004, cap in hand, and while I guess legally they have done everything by the book, morally I think they owe the people of Tyneside a lot more."

Mr Hicks co-founded and became chairman of investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst in 1989 which in turn founded Viasystems in 1996, with Mr Hicks on the board of directors.

In 2001 the investment firm, of which Tom Hick's was chairman, took majority control of Viasystems and in February 2002 Mr Hicks became chairman of the Viasystems Group.

He eventually retired from the board of Viasystems and the investment firm at the end of 2004.

Mr Hicks is the son of a Texas radio station owner and has bought into sport with a passion.

In addition to the Dallas Stars ice hockey team, he also bought the Texas Rangers baseball team from a franchise that included President Bush among its owners.

Mr Hicks was unavailable for comment today.

[Guest]

Interesting stuff Tom.

I have a mate who is married to a girl from Dallas and lives out in Texas, and he warned me ages ago about Hicks' reputation for ruining different clubs in several different sports. He says he is widely hated by the fans of nearly ever club he has every been involved with for breaking his financial promises.

That's why fans should unite for Monday evening, demonstrating that we want this idiot out.

[Morten_nogamst_Pedersen]

That's why fans should unite for Monday evening, demonstrating that we want this idiot out.

You think they'll have live coverage of your demonstrastion on Mauritius?