Credit: Getty Images/Carl Recine/Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

News

HomeNewsLiverpoolEnglish Premier LeagueFootball Finance

Liverpool and FSG chairman Tom Werner’s dream one step closer as £4bn deal marks end of 30-year era

Adam Williams

Thu 13 February 2025 17:45, UK Updated Wed 19 February 2025 11:45, UK

With assets in multiple time zones on both sides of the Atlantic, Fenway Sports Group never sleeps. Liverpool are one element of a portfolio worth over £10bn that traverses sports, media, and property.

However, for a business that is yet to yield a single dollar for the mothership in Boston, Massachusetts, Liverpool have certainly caused their American owners a few headaches.

FSG knew what they were signing up for when they took over one of the world’s biggest football teams in 2010. They were buying a social and cultural institution, not just a corporation.

Of course, the same would be true had they acquired any club in Europe, where the game is underpinned by over a century of history and an emotional intensity that simply isn’t matched in US franchise sport.

But owning Liverpool FC, based in a city fiercely proud of its individuality and socialist roots, brings more scrutiny and pressure for American ultra-capitalists than most – if not all – clubs worldwide.

That made FSG’s decision to join the European Super League in 2021 all the more baffling, although it was gratifying to see the breakaway plot collapse thanks to the sheer will of fans on Merseyside and beyond.

John Henry and Tom Werner’s approach in subsequent years has been more softly-softly.

Ticket prices are rising but gradually, the emphasis on the corporate hospitality sector has become more measured, and the club’s global ambitions are supplemented by genuinely brilliant local community work.

And while fans in L4 are often irked by FSG’s cautious approach to investment – at least relative to some of their peers – it’s hard to argue that their even-handed philosophy isn’t paying dividends on the pitch.

In an era controlled by Manchester City, arguably the greatest team in the Premier League era, they have won a first league title in 30 years and are well on course for a second.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	23	17	5	1	56	21	35	56
2	ArsenalArsenal	24	14	8	2	49	22	27	50
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	24	14	5	5	40	27	13	47
4	ChelseaChelsea	24	12	7	5	47	31	16	43
5	Man CityManchester City	24	12	5	7	48	35	13	41
6	NewcastleNewcastle	24	12	5	7	42	29	13	41

In total, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson have lifted eight major trophies between them under FSG, narrowly missing out on several more.

The new skipper, Virgil van Dijk, will likely be practicing his own trophy lift before the end of 2024-25.

But the champagne won’t even have gone flat before FSG begin thinking about how more silverware affects Liverpool’s enterprise value and, eventually, their exit strategy.

They measure success based on a very different set of criteria to Liverpool supporters. The aim is cold, hard capital growth. In the simplest terms: buy low, sell high.

Granted, there is a mantra that the owners broadly subscribe to that first originated in NASCAR, where FSG co-own RFK Racing: ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’.

But the ultimate aim is to de-risk and de-couple return on investment from success on the pitch, with the long-term vision to sell Liverpool to an investor with even deeper pockets.

In order to reach exit value and justify an appraisal of Liverpool likely in excess of £5bn, they need to demonstrate long-term and significant profitability.

The club has run a total surplus of £184m in the last decade.

In the context of the Premier League where suppliers of red ink make a killing, those are very respectable numbers. But the market that FSG eventually want to attract? They barely get out of bed for £184m.

Fenway need a quantum leap in terms of revenue at Anfield, while simultaneously maintaining rigid cost control – not easy in a market where spending on wages and transfers has exploded in recent years.

How they get there is anyone’s guess, but the big brains in the world of football finance are forecasting that better monetising the global fanbase via new technology will be key.

FSG wanted the Super League or Project Big Picture to be the next revenue panacea, but the imminent government-backed football regulator will extinguish any lingering hopes of joining breakaway leagues.

For the time being therefore, it looks as though their approach will need to be piecemeal.

The new Champions League format has been hugely lucrative for the Merseysiders, for example, but it doesn’t move the needle on its own.

Now, however, UEFA have opened the door for a new move that would help Liverpool chairman Tom Werner realise a long-standing ambition and bring the club’s ownership closer to its ultimate target.

• READ MORE: Liverpool and Aston Villa chiefs could enter £578m takeover battle as Michael Edwards and FSG work on deal

UEFA move paves way for Liverpool matches in United States

The Champions League is the big-ticket item for club owners, with the potential to deliver £100m-plus of extra revenue each season, with adjacent commercial benefits pushing that number even further.

But the competition’s move to a new 36-team league table this season is partly due to the likes of FSG lobbying UEFA to increase the size of the pie even further.

A huge chunk of the revenue UEFA currently pay to Liverpool and their peers comes from TEAM Marketing, who currently control the global commercial rights for European club competitions.

That ongoing deal is worth around £4bn per season and encompasses TV/streaming rights, sponsorship and licensing.

But in seismic news this week, UEFA have pivoted to another multinational agency, Relevant Sports. After 30 years with TEAM, the governing body are fully expected to strike a deal for the 2027 cycle onwards.

On surface level, it may read like a story that would only interest industry naval gazers, but it could have historic implications for the likes of Liverpool.

As reported by The Miguel Delaney, the switch is widely seen as inviting the possibility of Champions League matches being played in the United States.

Relevant are co-owned by Miami dolphins chairman and multi-sport mogul Stephen Ross, who is said to be actively lobbying for Europe’s premier club competition to be played outside the continent’s borders.

That, incidentally, is a long-held ambition of Liverpool chairman and FSG’s second-in-command, Tom Werner.

• READ MORE: Arne Slot reveals who he actually thinks is the greatest Liverpool player of all time

Why does FSG chief Tom Werner want Liverpool to play in the US?

In a rare interview last summer, Werner admitted: “I’m determined one day to have a game be played in New York City.”

“I even have the sort of crazy idea that there would be a day where we play one game in Tokyo, one game a few hours later in Los Angeles, one game a few hours later in Rio, one game a few hours later in Riyadh and make it sort of a day where football, where the Premier League, is celebrated.”

John Henry, who is FSG’s largest individual shareholder, distance himself from Werner’s comments in the same interview: “[It is] not something that I advocate or am particularly interested in.”

Werner’s slip of the tongue, however, confirmed that the idea of Liverpool matches overseas is under discussion at Fenway Sports Group’s headquarters.

Outside of Europe, America is football’s largest commercial market. With vast swathes of those interested in the sport yet to pick a team, there are potentially tens of millions of new consumers unaccounted for.

US fans are used to paying premium prices. There is generally less resistance to hyper-capitalism and sports fixtures as nakedly commercial events within its borders.

With the growth of new technologies – such as the viral Cosm immersive reality centres airing Premier League matches in the US – clubs are now able to engage with fans without geographic restrictions.

But if Liverpool can get more boots on the ground beyond pre-season tours in the States, it will serve as an on-ramp to turn casual fans into fanatics who are more likely to buy merchandise or visit Anfield.

Where that leaves the bedrock Liverpool fan, whose loud devotion to the club has cultivated the mythos that FSG use to sell the club’s ‘brand’ in America, is up for debate.

But when these issues are discussed in the Liverpool boardroom, it’s Boston accents you hear, not Scouse.