Liverpool owners FSG exploring two more takeovers as £200m 'deal in principle' agreed

Liverpool owners FSG are exploring more than one takeover opportunity outside of Spain as they look to expand their football and wider business empire, TBR Football can exclusively reveal.

Fenway Sports Group command a sports and entertainment portfolio which, according to industry analysts, is worth in excess of £12bn. Liverpool are considered the most valuable component, slightly ahead of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox.

FSG want to create a multi-club structure to scale their influence in football, with sporting director turned chief executive of football Michael Edwards overseeing the project.

Photo by Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

The multi-club model is increasingly vaunted by executives of Premier League clubs looking to build integrated player development pathways and broader, more sophisticated scouting operations.

Interestingly, however, TBR Football understands that FSG’s focus is as commercial as it is sporting.

That is among the reasons that Malaga were their first choice when they created a shortlist of potential takeover targets in Spain. The second-tier club is based in Andalucía on the Costa del Sol, one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations. The city itself has undergone significant urban regeneration in recent years. The football club’s stadium, Estadio La Rosaleda, is slated to stage matches at the 2030 World Cup.

But TBR Football is told that FSG have all but killed their interest in Malaga due to administrative issues with the club’s majority Qatari ownership. Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani was forced to hand over day-to-day control to Spanish judicial authorities in 2020, who have remained in charge ever since.

One more factor, sources say, is that 49 per cent shareholders BlueBay want to raise about £20m worth of working capital for immediate investment in the first team, a significant outlay for a second-division club.

Getafe takeover could require £200m commitment from FSG

FSG have since turned their attention to Getafe, who play in La Liga.

Those talks are going well, with one source even claiming that a ‘deal in principle’ has been reached. The same insider also suggested that the timing of the would-be takeover could depend on the magnitude of Liverpool’s spending in the summer transfer market. In total, it is believed that the deal could cost FSG up to £200m all-in – that includes the purchase price and a subsequent funding commitment.

The fact that Liverpool’s own spending is said to be a consideration may suggest a change in policy for FSG, who historically have only put cash into the club to fund infrastructure upgrades, not transfers, which are instead paid for only out of their soaring revenues.

Liverpool revenue projections Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media

If liquid capital demands at Anfield are indeed a factor in the pace of the Getafe negotiations, football finance experts consulted by this site posit that Fenway may now be considering breaking that self-imposed rule for the very first time, using their own funds to make signings rather than the club’s revenues or its £350m revolving credit facility, though that is speculation at this stage.

Liverpool have already spent £100m rising to £116m on Florian Wirtz this summer, as well as £29.5m on Jeremie Frimpong. They have also committed £40m to a deal to bring Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez to Anfield, with that deal now nearing completion.

FSG have typically opted to front-load their deals as opposed to leaning too heavily on instalment plans.

If Alexander Isak, for whom Newcastle would demand a fee well in excess of £100m, also signs for Liverpool this summer, it’s conceivable that the owners would need to put more money into the club, which in turn might impact the resources available in the Getafe negotiations, even with some sales too.

Levante are Liverpool’s third choice in multi-club project

Should talks with Getafe owner Angel Torres break down, TBR Football understands that fellow La Liga side Levante are FSG’s third choice.

As reported elsewhere, Elche, Real Valladolid and Espanyol are also under consideration.

Earlier this month, ALK Capital – the US investment firm which owns Burnley and is fronted by Alan Pace – submitted a formal proposal to buy out Espanyol’s owners, Rastar Group.

One report earlier this year also linked FSG with Valencia, but TBR Football has been unable to find any evidence to support that claim at this stage.

FSG retain interest in Portuguese clubs and are exploring landmark rugby deal

Last summer, before their immediate attentions turned to Spain, FSG held talks with historic French side Bordeaux. That proposed deal broke down for myriad reasons, including that Bordeaux don’t own their stadium and are being buffeted around by the crisis around the French game’s domestic TV deal.

However, it is understood that John Henry and his colleagues in Boston have looked at other investments throughout Europe and have a particular interest in Portugal.

Photo by James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images

The Portuguese Primeira Liga has been prominent in the multi-club land grab that football has witnessed over the last decade or so. Sources say that FSG are especially enticed by the country’s recruitment corridor with Brazil, as well as its superb coaching culture.

One more detail – Liverpool’s owners are also said to be conducting research into the viability of a deal in English rugby union. Specifics are scant at this stage, though Premiership Rugby are considering moving to a franchise-style model which experts say is likely to make it far more investible.

Speaking more generally, sources talked about a more global push from FSG into sports-adjacent businesses – media, financial services and so on.

As well as Henry, Tom Werner and Mike Gordon, the investment group is backed by private equity firms RedBird Capital, whose input and analysis has reportedly been central to drawing up their list of multi-club targets. Arctos, another private equity firm, are part of the capital structure too.

Liverpool ownership diagram Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media

Both firms are heavily invested in football. RedBird own AC Milan and Toulouse, while Arctos hold a 12.5 per cent stake in Paris Saint-Germain and an unspecified minority stake in Atalanta. They are also a major lender to several clubs.

Liverpool to reap recruitment benefits as part of multi-club constellation

While FSG are seeing the multi-club model through both commercial and performance lenses, it’s the football side of the masterplan that Liverpool fans will likely be more interested in.

Speaking exclusively to TBR Football, University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire says: “FSG are aware of the direction of travel when it comes to player recruitment. You are looking for younger and younger talent. Having a club in the European Union is attractive.”

“Because of the way the governing body endorsement system is set up, that can help you attract Spanish players, players from the EU and South America. You can use it, not as a holding area, but as an opportunity to try out the talent and see if the promise that you saw when a given player was 18 is still there when they are 17 and 18 and so on.”

But what about the administrative challenges faced by the likes of Crystal Palace and many other clubs before them when it comes to how UEFA regulate multi-club structures, especially in the event that two clubs from an ownership group qualify for the same European competition.

“The multi-club train left the station a long time ago”, Maguire suggests. “If you look at UEFA’s most recent report, there was something like 350 clubs involved in a multi-club group of some form.

“You cannot go back in time, so I think UEFA are trying to manage it. It’s about setting up a system that has checks and balances which will have credibility in terms of the integrity of the game.”

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