West Ham, like Liverpool were a solvent organisation when their owners went in to administration – avoiding the penalty, whereas Portsmouth were insolvent and handed a 9 point penalty.
The clarification from the Premier League says:
“The aim of the regulations is primarily to capture clubs who have gone into insolvency. This is manifestly not the case with Liverpool Football Club.”
Earlier today the club announced their intention to sell the club on to the New England Sports Venture group (NESV), a move which could see Tom Hicks and George Gillett lose out on approximately £100-£150M of their Cayman-Island based loans, whilst seeing the clubs loan with RBS wiped.
According to several journalists, the entire Liverpool football team is fully behind the boards move to remove the present owners.
The owners could still engage in a legal dispute with the existing board, but the matter would be unlikely to be resolved in 10 days – in which case RBS will assume control of Liverpool FC and then more than likely sell it on to the NESV group.