John W Henry's New England Sports Ventures are the new owners of Liverpool FC and the decision to ratify the £300 million takeover was taken with a secret vote on Wednesday night at the London headquarters of the club's lawyers Slaughter & May.

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• Court gives Reds sale green light
• Peter Lim withdraws bid
• Forum: What is Liverpool's goal?
• Hicks takes legal action
• Hicks and Gillett lose case
• Liverpool blog: The sale process starts
• First XI: Merseyside derby moments

While the focus of media attention was naturally on the eye-catching Texan court action by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, the Liverpool board, calmly led by chairman Martin Broughton, continued to convene their meeting and take a vote on the NESV takeover.

Broughton and his legal advisors, with Henry having already arrived at the lawyers' offices, felt they were on safe ground after the High Court judgement on Wednesday morning ordered Hicks and Gillett to reconvene the board as it was before they tried to sack two members and install their own nominees in order to halt the sale.

Despite all the legal wrangling in the courts on both sides of the Atlantic, ESPNsoccernet understands that everything is already in place for the takeover. NESV have a legally binding water-tight contract, and all the loose ends are virtually tied up, and this is the reason why fellow Peter Lim has walked away from attempting to muscle in on a takeover.

Of course, there remains one loose end, and that is the Texan court, but NESV, Broughton and their advisers do not believe that this can be effective and stop the sale being completed. However, more legal action, certainly law suits for damages from Hicks and Gillett, is inevitable.