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Liverpool owners FSG get update on £4.7bn takeover battle as world-record deal agreed in Boston

Adam Williams

Tue 25 March 2025 18:00, UK

It’s a game of opinions and Liverpool owners FSG – characterised either as Moneyball geniuses, self-interested hyper capitalists, or the best owners on the planet – inspire more than their fair share.

In reality, Fenway Sports Group are a bit of each. In October, it will be 15 years since the Boston-based owners bought Liverpool. In t🥃hat time, it’s hard to argue ♐they haven’t boxed above their weight class.

That Liverpool are routinely at the favourable end of the Premier League’s net spend table has become meme fodder in recent years, but to have done what they have on their recruitment budget ꩲis impre📖ssive.

Arne Slot has proved the perfect successor to Jurgen Klopp, equa🅠l parts continuity candidate and fresh ideas man. He w🐼ill soon deliver the second league title of the FSG era.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	29	21	7	1	69	27	42	70
2	ArsenalArsenal	29	16	10	3	53	24	29	58
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	29	16	6	7	49	35	14	54
4	ChelseaChelsea	29	14	7	8	53	37	16	49
5	Man CityManchester City	29	14	6	9	55	40	15	48
6	NewcastleNewcastle	28	14	5	9	47	38	9	47

They will also finish the season with a positive net spend as far as headline transfer figures are concerned. Their wage bill, typically a far more ac🌳curate predictor of success, meanwhile is highly com🌟petitive.

In 2023-24, a season when they didn’t even play in the Champio🐲ns League with its associated bonuses, they paid out £387m, which was second only to Manchester City in the Premier League.

From next season, the payroll will shrink, with Trent Alexander-Arnold set to leave Liverpool for Real Madrid, despite FSG tabling what would have been a recor🔥d contract offer.

It 🐷seems the 🎐26-year-old had his heart set on the Bernabeu and there was ultimately little that the owners could do to stop him.

If Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk leave, on the other hand, it will be a very different ꦉstory.

This is the flipside to supporting an FSG-owned team. Decisions are made – or not made – based on what appears to be an overly cautious philosophy. Penny wise, pound foolish is the accusation from some fans.

On the other si♓de of the Atlantic, supporters of the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins paint a similar picture.

The truth, however, is that every decision FSG make is backed up by terabytes of data and modelling based on various different contingencies. If John Henry and his deputies did it, they meant it.

Nearly every sports investor will tell you that it is an addictive pursuit and that winning trophies is the ul๊timate rush. But in their final analysis, the goal is to make money, not friends.

This is the masterplan at Anfield. FSG don’t take cash out of the club beside the occasional modest management fee, but they do plan to increase its value and eventually ☂sell it for billions.

This is what’s known as capital appreciation. It relies on demonstrating the viability of the business model ov﷽er time, meaning when Fenway feel they need to be ultra-disciplined in terms of cost control.

In the United States, the model is different.

The franchise sports model – with no relegation, a ceiling in terms of costs, and a collaborative approach ac🍨ross leagues – makes baseball and ice hockey profitable in their own rights.

And the latest from the American finance sphere illustrates why ꦗFSG are all in on the franchise racket.

• READ MORE: Mohamed Salah to issue official update in exactly one week as Liverpool su👍perstar set for £25m pa𝓡yday

New benchmark for FSG as world-record Boston Celtics deal confirmed

Sports in the United States generate m♏ore money than all the respective GDPs of all but the 7🗹0 richest counties on earth.

NFL is the most lucrativ𝔍e of the lot, followed by the NBA – those are the two areas that FSG aren’t yet directly involved in.

A long-standing partnership with LeBron James, who was formerly a small stakeholder in the club itself♔ before converting his shares into equity in FSG, has been seen as a means to one day changing that.

Aꦛnd when the Boston Celtics went up for sale in 2024, it seemed like the perfect🃏 fit. FSG’s offices are a stone’s throw away, after all.

The Boston Globe – a local outlet which, significantly, is owned by John Henry – reported last summer that the꧂ investment empire was indeed among the parties considering a bid.

However, FSG briefed earlier this 🧸year that they were no🥂t going to make an offer.

The process has now concluded, with a private equity-backed consortium beating off interest from n🅺ew Everton owner Dan Friedkin to secure a £4.7bn deal,♛ which is the biggest in sports history.

Liverpool’s rank in the world’s most valuable sports franchises

As far as FSG’s ambitions in basketball are concerned, something is sti🥂ll in the pipeline.

Las Veܫgas, which has long been mooted as the next expansion franchise destination, is being heralded as beachhead for FSG’s NBA masterplan.

For LeBron James,ꦏ who has expressed his desire to move into the ownership side of the sport would be central to Fenway’s campaign, retirement is on the horizon.

That will likely be the catalyst for FSG to acceleraไte their interest in basketball.

• READ MORE: Liverpool monitoring Greek wonderkid who just made international history with Newcastle and Man United al𒐪so keen

Liverpool and ‘Premflix’: The next massive revenue stream?

If FSG were to ♏pack up and sell tomorrow, Liverpooꦕl would probably fetch around £4bn. That is what the sale of a three per cent equity stake to Dynasty Equity for around £127m would suggest, anyway.

But the Boston owners are nowhere near exit value yet. For that to happen, the market would have ജto appraise the club at well beyond the £4.7bn paid for the Celtics.

How they get there is a matter of 🀅great debate in the football finance world.

Technology, most people agree, holds the key. Immersive reality, for example, can help better monetise overseas fans who don’t have acce🐎ss to Anfield.

A quantum leap in terms of media rights is another avenue. The Premier League’s domestic TV deal has soared for years but is showi🌼ng signs of slowing down.

Internationally, the pie can continue to grow for a while yet, but this growth area w൲ill beꦫ all but exhausted at some point.

How to increase the value of the rights, then? One idea is ‘Premflix’, the hypothetical name forඣ a direct-to-consumer streaming service which would replace the various꧑ media partnerships.

Liverpool are interested in this model, but it’s along way off at present, despite the Premier League signalling it could one day move in𓄧 this direction by taking its in overseas p𒉰roduction in-house recently.

Last week, a new poll from YouGov suggests that two in five football fans♏ would pay for an in-house streamin𒉰g service.

Those aren’t the kind of numbers tha🔯t would convince John Henry or many of his colleagu🎃es at Premier League shareholder meetings to take the plunge – not yet.

The sale of IP is cheap, easy and risk-free, so the league will be unlikely t꧙o make its own media product unless the value is massive and demonstrable.