Liverpool investment news as expert gives verdict on $21bn firm linked with FSG deal

It would make a 'lot of sense' if Fenway Sports Group (FSG) sold a stake in Liverpool to Liberty Media.

That's according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire as FSG continue to search for new investment.

It emerged eight months ago that the American group had put the Reds on the market, having purchased the club for £300 million in 2010. Principal owner John Henry has since confirmed that FSG are looking for a partial rather than a complete sale of Liverpool.

Several names have been linked, with Liberty being one of them. The Colarado-based firm have owned Formula 1 since 2017, with the sport growing in popularity manifold - particularly in America - through Netflix docuseries Born to Survive. Liberty are also the owners of Major League Baseball team the Atlanta Braves and broadcasting station Sirius XM. The company was valued at $20.8 billion by Forbes at the beginning of the year and chief executive Greg Maffei recently admitted that Liberty had explored investing in the Premier League.

Maguire, speaking to Red Men TV, believes that Liberty could prefer to buy the Premier League outright rather than a club. But Liverpool are one of the 'gold standard' clubs in England and that may appeal.

Maguire, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool, said: “The likes of Liberty are certainly interested, though I think they would rather buy the likes of the Premier League which could end up being very expensive. We’ve seen similar organisations trying to buy slices of Serie A or the Bundesliga.

The risk of being an investor in Liverpool is that if you don’t qualify for the Champions League then you are looking at a drop in income of £30-40 million. Whereas if you buy 10% of the whole league then you still have four teams qualifying for the Champions League. So some broad form of investment is certainly feasible and Liverpool are one of the gold-standard brands.

“Selling out to a media company for a slice of the club makes a lot of sense as you can utilise that as a brand. We will have to wait and see what might happen because I remember when Sky tried to buy a portion of Manchester United they were told by the CMA that they were not comfortable with the deal and it was vetoed.”