Hicks Against the Pricks

Tom Hicks -- beloved on two continents. Seems the Union of European Football Associations spokesman William Gaillard said yesterday that the Tom Hicks-co-owned Liverpool football club has some pretty shite fans -- something to do with their forging ducats to the team's face-off against AC Milan in the Champions League final and their stealing "tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children." Says here that "thousands of English fans with legitimate tickets were turned away from Athens' Olympic Stadium, while several hundred claim to have been admitted without a ticket or without having their ticket checked for its validity." Why come? Says Gaillard, because Liverpool's supporters are "the worst in Europe."

Well, Hicks -- who just a few days back was crapping on Texas Rangers fans for not getting behind the worst team in all of baseball -- didn't take kindly to Gaillard's comment, and it's the shot heard 'round the U.K. this a.m., as Hicks branded the UEFA mouthpiece "a clown" for having called out Liverpool fans. "UEFA did not handle this right at all," Hicks said. "To give 17,000 tickets to the two teams, particularly knowing Liverpool is going to bring 40,000 fans is insane. I think it is a classic case of a bureaucrat trying to take pressure off himself."

If nothing else, it gives Hicks something else to talk about other than his shite Texas Rangers. Speaking of clowns... --Robert Wilonsky