Fenway Sports Group’s Potential Liverpool FC Exit A Sign Soccer Has Peaked

As reports emerged claiming Liverpool FC owner Fenway Sports Group was considering selling the club, it was not manager Jurgen Klopp who faced the media.

Just a few weeks back the German went out of his way to highlight the ‘ceiling’ the Merseyside giants faced in comparison to clubs like Newcastle United and Manchester City.

So it would have been interesting to know whether he viewed the statement that FSG “under the right terms and conditions would consider new shareholders” as a validation of this stance.

Instead, Klopp’s assistant, Pep Lijnders, was tasked with staring down the mass of cameras ahead of the Red’s Carabao Cup game versus Derby. The coach made an interesting concession; the managerial team was aware of the club’s position before the news broke.

“We knew before, of course,” he added, “one and a half weeks ago or something.”

This season, more than any other, soccer players and coaches have faced questions that go way beyond their regular remit.

Whether discussing financial disparity, as Klopp was ahead of the Manchester City game, or the ethics of hosting the World Cup in Qatar, which Liverpool’s manager also got hot under the collar about, the news agenda has often been far from the soccer field.

Even then you had to feel for Lijnders who took the brunt of the initial media attention and towed the regular party line well.

“First of all, everybody who saw us in the last years realized who we are as a club [and that] we have a strong relationship with the owners,” he said, adding later “what I would like to say is that I always know the owners act in the best interests of the club and they always did. I believe they always tried at least. This relationship was very important for us.”

Why now?

Soccer is a sport where the thinking is often frustratingly short-term. As news of the potential sale of Liverpool broke, discussions inevitably turned to this season’s patchy form and suggestions of a major playing staff rebuild.

Also present was the theory that facing the financial might of rival owners FSG felt it had reached its limit.

“FSG perhaps acknowledge they have taken Liverpool as far as they can in their current state. Indeed, their ownership came with an accepted exit strategy,” leading writer Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo told readers.

“Like almost every other European club, simply cannot compete with that level of backing, as has been exposed by their unwillingness to spend beyond their means in the transfer market. It has prompted frustration among certain supporters, with boss Jurgen Klopp indicating he would prefer a little more risk being taken in hope of greater reward,” he added.

Former Reds defender Jamie Carragher, went even further, speculating about an even shorter timeframe of events.

“Maybe they woke up on Monday morning and read about how much Manchester City have made commercially and thought, ‘you can’t stop it, can you,” he said referring to the continued rise in revenues at the Citizens.

The truth is organizations like Fenway Sports Group aren’t responding to a recent set of financial results or a drop-off in form. These businesses make decisions based on projections over decades.

The connotations of a potential exit therefore should be viewed as a serious statement about the future of the game.

FSG’s stake in soccer’s most successful league would not be relinquished if it thought there were substantial riches to be unearthed.

The decision to explore a potential sale could be a sign they think the value of the club has peaked.

The Super League project failure

The greatest indication soccer is set for something of a downturn or at least a plateau can be found in the words of the leader of the game’s most famous club.

Speaking just a couple of weeks ago, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said “our beloved sport is sick, especially in Europe, and, of course, in Spain.

“[Soccer] is losing its position as the world’s leading global sport. The most worrying fact is that young people are becoming less and less interested in [soccer]. The current competitions, as they are designed today, do not attract spectators’ interest, except in the final stages,” he added.

Perez’s remedy to this predicament is of course a plan FSG was very much backing, the creation of a European Super League [ESL], the ill-fated breakaway competition which fell apart after fan anger prompted a flurry of English clubs to drop out.

The debacle prompted an extensive apology from owner John W Henry to Reds fans. “I’m sorry and I alone am responsible for the unnecessary negativity brought forward over the past couple of days,” he said in a video posted online, “it’s something I won’t forget. And shows the power the fans have today and will rightly continue to have.”

But were the ESL to have been created you have to wonder; would Henry and FSG be weighing up a sale now?

According to The Athletic, one of the titles which broke the story originally, the answer is no. “It is fair to say that had the European Super League got off the ground, FSG probably wouldn’t be looking to sell now,” the title wrote.

Predictions that the soccer bubble was ready to burst have been frequent since revenues in the sport began skyrocketing in the late 1990s.

However, history has shown the game to be economic recession-proof and now global pandemic-resistant.

It may be that FSG has called the market wrong and the next owners will oversee another equally lucrative period of growth.

But if Florentino Perez is to be believed, the sport may be approaching a high watermark where Liverpool’s owners should cash out their chips.