Latest Expert Witness News

Barrister to prove 'Sam is Langston'

FA Cup semi-finalist Cardiff City’s legal team have pledged to show today that Sam Hammam is heavily involved with the mysterious creditor threatening the club’s future.

The Bluebirds’ barrister made the claim at the end of the first day of a legal hearing that could send the club into administration. Barrister David Wolfson told the High Court in London: “We will show Sam Hammam equals Langston.”

Mr Wolfson spoke after a day of legal argument during which a barrister acting for Langston explained why the mysterious Panamanian firm is demanding immediate repayment of the £24m it loaned Cardiff City in 2004.

The barrister’s court pledge contradicts what former City chairman Sam Hammam told the Echo last year. In December Hammam wrote to the paper saying: “I am not Langston and I can’t tell them what to do. They got fed up with me long ago. I have no power with them.”

If the judgement goes against the football club, it will have to repay up to £30m to Langston immediately.

The Panamanian firm’s case is based on an argument that Cardiff City’s dealings with the council, developers and builders since October, 2006, have altered the terms of the original stadium deal so much that it effectively invalidates the club’s arrangement with Langston not to pay back any money for several years..

If the judge believes that the case cannot be determined without a trial of the evidence, it will be put off for an expensive court trial.

On the first of two days of the hearing in Court 59 of the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday, City’s relationships with the council, developers, builders and other firms were examined.

back