Liverpool in talks over £68m off-pitch deal as FSG weigh up four Brazilian options
£68m. ????
Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group have launched the next phase of an investment masterplan which could take them to Brazil.
FSG are one of the most valuable sports empires in the world and bought Liverpool for £300m in 2010.
The group, in whom John Henry is the largest individual shareholder, also own baseball franchise the Boston Red Sox and NHL outfit the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as a stake in the PGA Tour.
In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, an outlet owned by FSG, Henry appeared to signal that the £2.3bn acquisition of the PGA Tour last year would be the group’s last investment for a while.
However, the latest news from behind the scenes at Anfield suggests that might have been something of a double bluff from the 74-year-old.
Liverpool owners FSG enter talks for Bordeaux takeover
As reported by The Athletic, FSG are in talks to buy historic French side Bordeaux.
The club was relegated from Ligue 1 in 2021-22 and now face being demoted to the third tier because of the current owners’ failure to prove they have the funds to continue to run the club.
While the headline takeover fee would likely be small, it is believed that the total cost for FSG would likely be around £68m, with debt and other factors considered.
FSG have long harboured an ambition to create a multi-club empire overseen by Liverpool, just as Man City have done with the City Football Group.
The growth of the Red Bull network and new groups like MSP Sports Capital and Eagle Football Holdings appears to have accelerated this drive.
Michael Edwards is a big advocate of the multi-club model and it is understood that his return to Liverpool as CEO was contingent on establishing a Man City-style network of clubs.
There are commercial, regulatory and recruitment benefits to the model.
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FSG also linked with four Brazilian clubs
Liverpool have also been linked with a number of top clubs in Brazil, a territory in which City Football Group and Red Bull have a foothold.
Aston Villa owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris are also keen to add a Brazilian club to their V Sports group.
This land grab in the South American country is a result of its commercial appeal as perhaps the most significant football nation on earth, with investors believing the market is undervalued.
FSG have previously been linked with Cruzeiro, Botafogo, Athletico Paranaense and Internacional, all of whom are members of the G-12, Brazil’s equivalent of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’.
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