Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group are still actively seeking at least one more club to add to their portfolio, but a long wait for investment is no surprise.
Though talk of FSG acquiring a new football club to operate along Liverpool has quietened significantly in recent months, work is still underway in identifying the right opportunity.
That is according to the Liverpool Echo‘s chief business of football writer Dave Powell, who writes that the ownership group “remain committed” to a project led by Michael Edwards.
It is maintained that “there hasn’t been a timescale placed on it” and that, despite a failed bid to purchase Bordeaux in July, they are simply “willing to wait for the right investment opportunity.”
FSG’s stance should come as no surprise, and there is no indication that Edwards – appointed CEO of football in March 2024 with an emphasis on leading a multi-club model – would be at odds with this.
This is, after all, the exact approach the American-based group have taken when it comes to transfers at Liverpool.
So why the long wait?
“They are more considered when it comes to investing, preferring to remove as much risk as possible, but there is also an opportunistic side, and that was shown with the Bordeaux move,” Powell explains.
Explaining this long wait for investment, an interesting parallel is made with RedBird Capital Partners – minority shareholders in FSG – and their eventual purchase of Toulouse in 2020.
That deal was “the culmination of more than two years of work,” which saw Damien Comolli – once Liverpool’s sporting director – work with “a dossier of more than 80 clubs from across Europe and beyond.”
This included analytical research on “not just the football infrastructure, finances and media deals, but also the demographics of the places they were looking to acquire clubs in looked at in a deep and meaningful way.”
Put simply, FSG will be seeking the right club for the right price in order to not only benefit their portfolio but also have the ability to enhance Liverpool.
Any additional club will be viewed as a development prospect for Liverpool, particularly when it comes to signing players who could eventually make the leap to Arne Slot‘s squad.
Interestingly, ESPN reports that FSG are now ready to sell a minority stake in another of their assets, NHL franchise the Pittsburgh Penguins, while there is known interest in expanding into the NBA.
Back to football and their scope for investment is believed to include clubs in South America, with previous interest in Brazilian side Cruzeiro, though there is expected to be more emphasis on Europe.
