TNK-BP, an oil company that produces 1.6m barrels a day and which is owned jointly by Britain's BP and Russian private investors, AlfaAccessRenova (AAR), was for months paralysed by war in the boardroom.

ECONOMIST: BP in Russia

Their falling-out has led to a war of words breaking out in the Anfield boardroom and in a television interview last week, Hicks defiantly outlined his own plans for the future of the club as well again calling for Parry's resignation and claiming the chief executive's tenure was a "disaster".

BBC: Owner Hicks braves Anfield crowd

Even as it raged in recent years, the drug war in Mexico was not a major topic of boardroom conversation.

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