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Liverpool owners FSG primed for £260m cash bonanza that easily smashes Mohamed Salah’s Saudi contract offer

Adam Williams

Wed 29 January 2025 7:15, UK

The economy of modern the modern game is such that, if Mohamed Salah’s contract impasse ends with him leaving Liverpool, his next paymasters will almost certainly be from the Arab Gulf

Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain have pivoted away from the superstar-hungry strategy that saw Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi pitch up in the French capital, but Salah might be an exception.

TBR Football exclusively revealed late last year that PSG had held talked with 👍intermediaries over Salah, althoug🎐h there h♉as been no direct contact between the Egyptian King and the club.

The Saudi Pro League seems a more likely destination at this stage and TBR has also been told that fixers for the Saudi football authorities are pre🃏pꦦared to offer Salah a deal of earth-shattering proportions.

Liverpool’s 3rd all-time top goalscorer’s stardom in the Arab world means that offering the attacker the same type of mon𒉰ey Cristiano Ronaldo earns is seen as commerc🌼ially viable despite his age.

But at 32, Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) aren’t prepared to write Salah a blank cheque, with the attacker seemingly holding out for a contract that will run until at least t🐬he end of 2026-27.

The Boston-headquartered owners’ recruitment and retention strategy in football has always b▨ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚeen driven by data, just as it is in their operations on the other side of the Atlantic.

It is a familiar story at FSG’s Major League Baseball franchise Boston Red Sox, who were prepared to give Juan Soto a £550m contract b🌼ut not match the world-record proposal from the New York🔯 Mets last year.

The🐈 takeaway? Regardless of how flawlessly Salah or any other athlete on their payroll performs, FSG won’t be he🎃ld to ransom and, as risk-averse operators, need to be confident of a return on investment.

A place in the Premier League and the baggage ꧂that brings is an inherently volatile investment, making Liverpool easily the highest-risk asset in FSG’s £15bn-strong sports portfolio.

FSG and their peers in the ‘Big Six’ are hedging their bets in football by supercharging commercial🦋 and matchday income, but how a team performs on the pitch can✃ still cause wild revenue peaks and troughs.

The same isn’t true in most of the closed-shop franchise leagues where John Henry and his allies on the FSG board have set up shop, such as Major League Baseball, the National Hoc♔key League, and NASCAR.

In the United States, FSG ca🌱n skim profits off the top like they haven’t at Liverpool. Instead, the long-term play at Anfield is capital appreciation – AKA buy low, sell high.

And the latest news from A𒁏merica s𓆏hows how lucrative this strategy could be.

• READ MORE: Official Liverpool announcement speaks volumes as £203m FSG bon🐷anza follows Man City complaint

Liverpool owners FSG invite offers for £1.3bn-valued franchise

When it comes to the powerhouses of US franchise sports, FSG have almost got the set, although they have seemingly rejected the chance to buy an NBA franchise in their native Boston.

Now, however, they appear set to realise some ad⛦ditional value from their investment in the Pittsburgh Penguins, the NHL team they bought for about £600m in 2021.

As relayed by , FSG are actively courting minority investment in the 🌱Penguins.

A𒀰lthough the holdings company is yet to decide what level of equity they want to divest, it is said they will retain majority control.

Elsewhere, it has been reported that sources are suggesti🌄ng FSG are eying a relationship similar to that which NFL franchise Pittsburgh Stealers have with Thomas Tull, w♍ho owns 16 per cent of the business.

With an enterprise value of around £1.3bn, selling a 10-20 pe♛r cent equity stake in the Penguins could see FSG trouser as much 💦as £260m.

That is the kind of money that would blow Salah’s contract demands out of the water and would put pay to any꧅ suggestions that lack of liquidity is an issue for FSG in an unfavourable macroeconomic environment.

Significantly, it would echo the move FSG made in September 2023 when the owners sold a fraction of their stake in Liverpool to private equi✨ty firm Dynasty Equity.

The value of that sale isn’t officially ꦡknown. Supporters will need to wait until Liverpool release their accountღs in a few weeks time to find out what portion of their club is owned by Dynasty.

However, TBR Football has been told that the transaction is likely to have been worth 🤪around £150m.

Remarkably, that means FSG h🧸ave recouped almost half of the🤪 £300m they paid Tom Hicks and🍸 George Gillette to buy Liverpool outright in 2010 in exchange for 🎃what is likely to be a single-digit percentage.

It’s an astonishing markup – but they🌠 are confident ꦛthere is far more upside to com.

• READ MORE: David Ornstein reveals what he’s h👍eard about Liver▨pool potentially making signings before deadline day

Salah could take stake in Saudi Pro League team

Elsewhere in the sports mergers and acquisitions sphere, Salah is being weighed up as a potential part-owner of a Saud𒉰i Pro League team.

Sources have previously told TBR th🌌at Salah could be offered a stake in a club of his choosing if he does head to the Guꦺlf after his exit from Merseyside.

In theory, this could be simi🐈lar to Lionel Messi’s arrangement with Inter Miami, in whom he is believed to have the option to take an equity stake after he retires.

However, Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire doesn’t thi꧟nk it will move the dial much in negotiations.

“I don’t think it will be a dealbreaker,” said the Price of Football author, speaking exclusively to TBR Football.

“The remuneration package on offer, as well as the alternative offer Liverpool have made already, will be at such a high level that it won’t represent that big a cut.

“Yes, there might be some legacy benefits for Salah here. But we have not seen an uptick in the Saudi Pro League that they had hoped for despite having Ronaldo, Neymar and Benzema.”