In a carefully-constructed 91-word statement, Fenway Sports Group have confirmed they are open to offers for Liverpool while balancing on a fine line that underlines their commitment to ensuring the team’s continued on-field success.
Effectively, as first reported by The Athletic, they are saying: the club is for sale but only at the right price and there may also be the potential to buy a minority stake.
This is not a firesale but John Henry’s willingness to consider bids for the club his group purchased 12 years ago should not be that surprising considering the keys to Anfield cost them £300m and a rival Premier League club sold to US-based investors for £2.5bn earlier this year.
FSG, above everything, is an investment firm that seeks to profit and this autumn’s collapse of the pound points to it being a good time for American investors.
Jurgen Klopp’s recent comments about struggling to compete with state-owned clubs may also now read differently with this development in mind.
Yet a potential sale leads to myriad questions - from who could take over to the status of one of FSG’s key investors, the RedBird Capital Partners investment group that purchased a 10% slice last year and has since purchased controlling stakes in AC Milan and Toulouse.
When RedBird’s investment in FSG was announced in March 2021 it placed the value of the company at $7.35bn. FSG also own the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey team and a TV network - but Liverpool, according to valuations, will be worth about £3.5bn, according to Forbes.
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RedBird is based in New York, claims to have more than $7bn of assets under its management and has links to LeBron James and rapper Drake among many others.
Gerry Cardinale, RedBird’s founder, has previously refused to rule out becoming Liverpool’s majority owner, describing it as a “privilege” - even if it was not initially his firm’s end goal.
"No, I definitely would not exclude it as it would be a privilege but I think that Liverpool is in fantastic hands with the current group," Cardinale said at a Financial Times summit last year. "We are there to support and play a supporting role where we can but that is a phenomenal team from ownership and management all the way down."
But those comments were made before the Milan deal was completed and that adds some, though not insurmountable, complex hurdles to be navigated with strict rules in place when it comes to owners of different clubs meeting in UEFA competitions.
That prospect remains some way down the line, of course.
For now the focus is on whether genuine parties take FSG up on their invitation. RedBird may well be among those considering the possibility.
