FSG Potentially Selling Liverpool FC Raises Future Ownership Question

The news that Liverpool FC owners Fenway Sports Group are open to selling the club, and the subsequent process of finding a potential buyer could have big repercussions for Liverpool and beyond.

It means one of the most valuable and storied franchises in the sport is on the market—one that is steeped in political as well as sporting history, and one for which even the word franchise itself would be considered to not do the club, and its culture, justice.

It’s more an institution—as many other historic, storied clubs across the world would also claim to be. Its owners seen as mere custodians, but once huge sums of money are involved, it can be difficult to find such custodianship, as Liverpool fans are already all too aware.

This will, therefore, lead to discussions around which individual or group can afford such a purchase, and how they will steward their new club on and off the field.

It also encourages reflection on the current owners and the situation they are in after 12 years at the helm, and perhaps even lead to the realisation they are the best kind of rich owner a club like Liverpool could have, despite occasional criticism aimed in their direction.

Compared to other ownership groups across the world of top level football, and among the clubs who might be considered Champions League contenders, FSG could be considered among the best of the (bad, depending on perspective) bunch.

FSG have taken no money out of Liverpool FC through dividends, unlike owners such as the Glazer family at Manchester United who regularly use the club to pay themselves.

This means FSG’s return on investment was always going to be the increase in the club’s value on the back of the way they would improve it during their time as owners.

For that to happen, the club needed to become more successful on the pitch and better organised off it.

They needed to rebuild and improve the club, and they needed to do so without putting it at risk through things such as unmanageable debt, overspending, or falling foul of various financial fair play rules laid out by UEFA and the Premier League.

As would be expected, this line of thinking initially aligned with the aspirations of supporters. When FSG took over, the club were on their way to no longer being Champions League regulars, something that was eventually revived under the America owners and the manager they hired, Jürgen Klopp.

But a minority of especially online fans increasingly began to criticise FSG’s methods. The owners were criticised for not ploughing their own money into the transfer market for players in the way owners at clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City, and even local rivals Everton might.

That discontent gradually became more popular but was not reflected at the games themselves. Those complaints themselves were rubbished by the fact that Liverpool, under FSG, assembled under Klopp one of their best teams the club has ever seen, winning a Champions League, Club World Cup, Premier League, EFL Cup, and FA Cup.

Match-going fans did regularly hold the owners to account for other things, though. They protested against decisions to raise ticket prices, to threaten to join a European Super League, to trademark the word Liverpool, and other more cultural, off-field concerns, but the online gripes at lack of signings rarely made it into the stands.

That was until this summer, when there were pockets of shouts in the direction of principal owner John W. Henry who had visited Anfield ahead of a game against Bournemouth, voicing concern that Liverpool’s squad was weak in midfield.

It was a very specific concern that was not without reason, even though it’s likely that Klopp and his staff will have been happy enough with, and loyal to his current midfielders. The decision not to invest in this area of the squad will not have been solely down to the owners.

It is also worth looking back at the state of the club FSG inherited. Previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett had taken Liverpool to the brink of administration before FSG, then known as New England Sports Ventures, stepped in.

It was almost like FSG applied the Moneyball strategy used in baseball to the purchasing of a football club. They saw an asset whose potential value was much higher than its current value and made the move, much as they do with player acquisitions.

Led by John W.Henry who was at that time primarily known in sports for his ownership of the Boston Red Sox, FSG are a group very much concerned with sporting projects.

Of course, the underlying motive of businesses of this type is to make money, but FSG appear to have a genuine interest in the workings of sports teams and how to make them work better in order to make that money.

This, again, would be in contrast to their compatriots a relatively short drive down the M62 motorway at Manchester United who always appear to have plans for the money but not for the football.

FSG knew the value of Liverpool would rise if they applied their methods even with only a small degree of success.

As it turned out, they had considerable success at the club as Liverpool won their first title since 1992 and all of the major cup competitions at some point in the space of a four year period.

Liverpool’s increased value goes beyond the balance sheet. Part of its worth will be related to the processes put in place and improvements carried out at the club under FSG’s stewardship.

There is a structure that ranges from the physical, in the shape of a new training ground and a renovated and expanded stadium, to the intellectual and practical such as recruitment, coaching, and sports science.

Many supporters are now rightly concerned as to in whose hands their club will be next.

A statement from Liverpool FC supporters’ union, Spirit of Shankly (SOS), read: “We expect both the Supporters’ Board and SOS to be engaged in some part of the process so that supporters are front and centre of any sale and the first thoughts of prospective owners.”

FSG bought Liverpool FC for £300 million (the equivalent of $478 million at the time). The club was most recently valued by Forbes at $4.45 billion, the fourth-most valuable club in soccer.

They will do well to find a buyer with such money that doesn’t also come with baggage that goes against club values.