‘Shut me down’ - FSG ally lifts the lid on $350 million Liverpool takeover regret

RedBird Capital Partners managing director Gerry Cardinale has told of his regret he did not complete a takeover of Liverpool in 2008.

Cardinale’s RedBird are a stakeholder in Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group after purchasing an 11% stake for £533 million in April 2021.

But Cardinale revealed when he was working for Goldman Sachs earlier in his career, he recommended that the investment bank to purchase a controlling stake in the Merseyside outfit for $350 million. At the time, much-maligned pair Tom Hicks and George Gillett owned the club.

Morgan Sachs’ then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein rebuffed the idea, however, and two years later, FSG purchased Liverpool for £300 million.

Speaking at the 2023 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Cardinale said: “The advice to my 20-year-old self? I started the YES Network with George Steinbrenner when I was 33 years old, so the advice to my 33-year-old self would have been the inkling that we had a few years later to go and buy Liverpool at a $350 million valuation.

“Goldman (Sachs) shut me down on that and we would have done that a lot earlier and that would have been pretty good.”

FSG are currently seeking a partial sale of Liverpool, having put the club on the market more than four months ago.