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What FSG plan to do during Liverpool’s Asia pre-season tour, £480m worth of deals in focus

Adam Williams

Thu 17 April 2025 19:15, UK

In Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group have access to the global marketplace in a way that isn’t the case with their other investments in US franchise sport.

This summer, Liverpool will travel to Japan and Hong Kong for pre-season. They will almost certainly be just a few weeks on from being crowned Premier League champions for a second time in the FSG era.

The United States has historically been their go-to destination. In Arne Slot’s first pre-season in charge, Liverpool played a series of friendlies across Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

In the Jurgen Klopp era, Liverpool visited Asia twice. In 2022-23, Singapore and Thailand were the destinations before they returned to Singapore the following summer.

The tours are believed to be worth £8-10m in promoter fees alone, but the true financial value extends well beyond their cut of ticket sales.

They are brand-building excursions as much as anything, which makes them central to Liverpool’s commercial strategy, which saw them bank £308m from sponsorship, retail and events last season.

Under Fenway Sports Group’s self-sufficient model, that income is central to Liverpool’s competitiveness in the transfer market, as well the wage bill, which has the biggest correlation with success on the pitch.

Unlike a growing contingent of owners in the Premier League, FSG want Liverpool to spend only what they earn. The hierarchy in Boston have put next to no money into the club in 15 years of ownership.

That has made the Reds one of the most profitable teams in football finance but it has also meant they have historically had to think smarter than their peers rather than simply outspend them.

As one of the building blocks of their international appeal, it is no exaggeration to say that pre-season tours have been fundamental to Liverpool’s ability to win titles.

This summer, their visit to Japan and Hong will be both a fitness-building practice and a 20,000-air-mile victory lap following Premier League glory.

As such, it will be more lucrative than your common or garden pre-season tour.

To explore the direct financial impact of the tour and the benefits which are harder to quantify but just as lucrative, TBR Football spoke exclusively to University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire.

• READ MORE: ‘Always five billionaires lined up’ if FSG decide to sell Liverpool as John Henry ally speaks on £4bn valuation

Liverpool’s pre-season plans go way beyond exhibition matches, says Kieran Maguire

“For a globally supported club like Liverpool, what sponsors want is the opportunity to have some form of engagement with the club in the local markets,” says Maguire, Price of Football author and podcast host.

Got it — here’s the simplified table with just the fixture details:

“Players will spend as much time smiling alongside random products produce by the sponsors as they will in training and actually playing matches.

“On the back of that, Liverpool’s view is that the matches aren’t quite loss leaders – they will still make profits from them – but they are part of a portfolio of activity at the club dedicated to winning hearts and minds in markets like Asia.

“That helps to get new contracts over the line. It’s a lot easier to persuade a potential sponsor in Southeast Asia with Liverpool if they are going to play in the region either in the most recent summer or the next one after that.

“It raises the profile of the deal for both parties, so the value of the contract is enhanced.”

• READ MORE: What Virgil van Dijk told Gary Neville he might do if Liverpool won another Premier League title

£480m Liverpool revenue has links back to Southeast Asia

This summer will see Liverpool launch their new kit deal with Adidas, said to be worth £60m annually.

Japan is a key Adidas market. Last summer when Newcastle were launching their own Adidas partnership, it was no coincidence that it was Japan that they chose for pre-season.

Over £1bn worth of Adidas’ revenue can be traced back to Japan and, while Liverpool don’t give a geo-specific breakdown of their sales, Japan is likely one of their biggest markets after the US.

Significantly, Liverpool also inked a contract with Japan Airlines last June, expanding the partnership with a new campaign earlier this year. Japan Airlines also sponsor a lounge at Anfield.

In July 2023, Liverpool signed with another Japanese brand, the apparel company Kodansha. The Merseysiders have ramped up that commercial alliance with a new fashion range only this week.

The logistics involved with transporting 50 players and staff around the world means that international tours are planned well, well in advance, with reconnaissance taking place sometimes years beforehand.

Liverpool will have used their intensions to travel to Japan in negotiations with both partners. See also: the club’s front-of-shirt deal with Standard Chartered.

The financial services firm have deep links to Liverpool’s other pre-season destination, Hong Kong, as one of the three commercial banks licensed to print the Hong Kong dollar.

That deal, worth at least £50m per year, will also have been bolstered by the club’s trip to Asia.

Including a tour fee of around £10m, an estimated £480m of guaranteed commercial income over the lifespans of the various aforementioned contracts can be traced in some way back to the region.

That is not to say these deals wouldn’t have been struck otherwise, but the first thing anyone who works in Liverpool’s commercial arm will tell you is that sponsors want boots-on-the-ground engagement.

Without that kind of buy-in and – buzzword – synergy, football clubs simply can’t justify the prices they are asking to pay to partner with the club.

• READ MORE: Adrien Rabiot says Liverpool once had a player who is even better than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

FSG covered if Mohamed Salah decides he wants to quit Liverpool mid-contract

Speaking of commercial juggernauts, Mohamed Salah has re-signed with Liverpool. His £350,000-a-week deal, however, is only a fraction of his overall income.

Salah earns over £1m per week from his various brand partnerships, which include Adidas, Pepsi, Gucci, Vodafone and Visa.

Supposedly, this was one of the reasons that the Egyptian King was so keen to renew.

At Anfield, he is guaranteed the kind of commercial exposure not available at Paris Saint-Germain or the Saudi Pro League.

FSG have since also agreed terms with Virgil van Dijk and will be glad to have the monkey off their backs that has been pestering them all season.

And while losing either of the pair in addition to Trent Alexander-Arnold this summer would have been an emotional gut punch for Liverpool fans, does the deal make sense for FSG in cold, hard financial terms?

Yes, according to Kieran Maguire, who analysed Michael Edwards’ reported leading role in the deals as well as the fact that Salah’s value to Liverpool is now locked in for another two years.

“I think this is reflective of his professionalism and the level of trust FSG have in his ability to negotiate on behalf of the club,” Maguire said about Edwards’ involvement.

“It’s his responsibility to ensure that whatever contracts are signed are mutually beneficial. I think that’s very much the case in the Salah decision.

“My view is that, if Liverpool and Mo Salah decide in 12 months’ time that its the end of the road, they could sell him for £60m. They have got the benefit of two more years of service.

“If they mutually decide that one year is enough, they will get a good price.

“This is quite similar to the position that we saw with Luis Suarez. If you recall, in December 2013, he signed a four-and-a-half-year contract extension.

“They sold him six months later. There was that famous clause in his contract that if anyone bid £40m plus £1, they could speak to the player. Arsenal did that. There could be a similar benefit here.

“Liverpool get protection in terms of the value of Salah’s service. There are options that could be fiscally beneficial for all concerned over the next two years.”