#FSGOut, the potential sale of Liverpool and a fear of being left behind

June 02, 2024

It was a classic contest between England’s two outstanding teams.

Last April, Liverpool went to the Etihad and fought out a thrilling 2-2 draw. When the dust had settled, opponents Manchester City led the way in the Premier League title race by a solitary point with seven games remaining. Jurgen Klopp’s side went home to Merseyside still chasing an unprecedented quadruple.

Twelve months on, the landscape is very different.

City find themselves playing catch-up in pursuit of leaders Arsenal, with a Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich and an FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United on the horizon.

Liverpool have no such hopes of ending 2022-23 with silverware. For them, it’s been a season of alarming regression following the heartache of missing out on both Premier League and Champions League glory by such narrow margins on successive weekends last May.

Out of all the cups and sitting sixth in the table, they are 18 points worse off than at the same stage last season and 19 points adrift of City. Targets have been drastically revised. Now it’s all about trying to salvage Champions League qualification on the run-in before embarking on a pivotal summer when the squad will undergo some major changes — there’s a midfield rebuild to oversee.

The ownership of the club is once again a hot topic. Is a lack of investment to blame for their current plight? And can Liverpool’s self-sustaining business model really provide the resources required to get them back competing for the biggest prizes, given the deeper pockets of some of their rivals for those trophies?

When The Athletic revealed in November that Fenway Sports Group (FSG) was open to the idea of sanctioning a full sale, many Liverpool supporters were eagerly anticipating an influx of cash to enhance the club’s spending power in the transfer market. Others were more cautious about who may end up taking over, where the money would be coming from and what the future could hold.

However, with no suitable offers forthcoming for an asset valued between £3billion and £4billion, by January it was increasingly clear FSG had focused its attention on selling only a minority stake and principal owner John W Henry later confirmed that stance. “We remain fully committed to the long-term success of the club,” Henry said. Talks to find the right “strategic partner” to help grow the club further are ongoing.

(Photo: Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

For some fans, FSG’s decision to stick around was a body blow. There is a vocal minority who have long been against the US organisation’s stewardship. They believe what Liverpool have achieved during its tenure has been in spite of rather than because of FSG’s leadership.

The noise on social media has certainly grown over the course of this troubled season. After every crushing setback, #FSGOut trends on Twitter. The finger of blame is pointed at the owners for not backing Klopp sufficiently in the transfer market.

It has turned increasingly toxic. And it’s not just Liverpool’s results, the state of play elsewhere in football has intensified things. Chelsea’s lavish spending spree under new owners, Arsenal’s resurgence, Newcastle United’s emergence as a serious force with the powerful backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, while Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim and INEOS billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe battle to free a revived Manchester United from the clutches of the Glazer family. Not to mention City and the riches of Sheikh Mansour.

There’s a fear of getting left behind.

“The ‘FSG Out’ stuff has been there forever online but we’ve seen a big shift across our platforms over the course of this season,” says Paul Machin of popular Liverpool fan channel Redmen TV, which boasts more than half a million subscribers on YouTube.

“It’s always exasperated when the team isn’t playing well, and it’s got louder. It’s too simplistic to say it’s just fans who live miles away (from Merseyside) making noise on social media. There are certainly people inside the ground who share similar sentiments.

“But I’m just not sure it’s as binary inside the ground. There are more nuances to it. Yeah, you want owners with deep pockets who can provide the best players possible, but it’s not as childish as it is online where it descends into name-calling and schoolyard behaviour.”

There’s certainly a disconnect between social media and real life. A protest march against the owners was planned online prior to January’s visit of Chelsea but at the specified meet time nobody was present outside the Kop End restaurant on Oakfield Road, some 300 metres from the stadium.

Before Liverpool faced Manchester United in their most recent home game, a plane flew over Anfield with a banner that read: ‘FSG OUT – KLOPP IN – ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.’

Whoever paid for it didn’t get much bang for their buck as Liverpool dished out a historic 7-0 thrashing to their arch-rivals – hardly a sign of terminal decline.

(Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)

“I sit in section 203 of the Kop and no one even noticed the plane or the banner. I didn’t even know it had been there until after the game,” says Machin.

“If Liverpool lose going into an international break, we’re always braced for the fume that inevitably follows. We get a lot of stick for not being critical enough of the owners. We get accused of giving them an easy ride, but that’s simply not the case.

“There are no protests or marches to cover. We’d always be open to covering that kind of thing — we started life as a protest channel when as fans we were trying to get rid of (previous owners) Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

“Back then, you had sensible, articulate, diehard Liverpool fans leading the way who you could engage with. Currently there’s nothing like the same feeling towards FSG. With ‘FSG Out’, they aren’t an actual group and often there’s a nasty, aggressive side to it.”

Supporters union Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) know that only too well. Over the past decade, they have fought hard to hold the owners to account and give fans a greater voice in the running of the club.

They mobilised against planned hefty ticket-price increases in 2016, when 10,000 supporters staged an Anfield walkout and FSG swiftly performed a U-turn. They were just as vehement in their opposition to attempts to trademark the word ‘Liverpool’, to the use of the government furlough scheme during the pandemic and to Henry’s ill-judged support for the doomed European Super League.

Last August, they secured legally-binding fan representation at boardroom level with the launch of the supporters’ board. When FSG recently announced plans to end an eight-year freeze on ticket prices with a modest two per cent increase for most seats for 2023-24, the supporters’ board branded the hike “cruel, unjust, unreasonable and unfair”.

Yet SOS have stood accused of going easy on FSG.

When they released a joint statement with Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST) in January, calling on the government to strengthen the rules about who can own and run clubs to stop them falling into “improper hands”, some interpreted it as a direct response to rumours that a Qatari group were on the brink of buying Liverpool.

SOS officials subsequently received a torrent of abuse online. Ludicrously, they were branded racist and told they were holding the club back by seeking to put hurdles in the way of a rich benefactor or sovereign wealth fund taking control.

The truth was they had been in discussions with MUST since November, and in fact FSG wasn’t in advanced talks over a full sale with any potential investor, let alone a Qatari group.

“Some of the comments were so vile that we had to report it,” says SOS chair Joe Blott. “It’s just unpleasant for the volunteers who handle our social media, who are only involved because they want to help fans across the world.

“We didn’t say anything about the rumours. We stick to the facts. Our point was simply that these are community assets that need to be protected. It’s never been a case of being pro- or anti-FSG; for SOS, it’s just about holding whoever owns the club to account for the decisions they make. We expect the custodians of LFC, whoever they are, to adhere to the values, principles and culture of the club.

“It’s impossible to speak on behalf of all LFC fans as there’s such a wide range of views. For some, it’s just black or white — bad owners, good owners. There’s no rational thinking. Lose three in a row and it becomes a tidal wave online.

“What we’ve seen over the course of this season is that results on the field have had an impact on people’s views. The common criticism is that the downturn is a result of not enough money being invested in the squad. It’s a source of frustration, especially when you see other clubs spending more. If Jurgen was to come out and say he’s not getting the backing he needs then, of course, that’s something we would challenge. But that’s not happened.

“It’s OK saying ‘FSG Out’, but who has the money required to buy them out, and what’s their motive for doing so?”

There have been some high-profile blunders along the way, but there’s no denying FSG has transformed Liverpool on and off the field since the £300million takeover in October 2010. It inherited a manager in Roy Hodgson who was entertaining talk of a relegation scrap.

(Photo: Barrington Coombs/PA Images via Getty Images)

After a couple of false dawns, it was the shrewd appointments of Klopp and Michael Edwards, the former sporting director, who helped take Liverpool back to the summit. It was FSG’s innovative approach to data that helped the club repeatedly find value in the transfer market.

There’s been a first Champions League triumph since 2005, the end of the club’s painful 30-year wait for the domestic title, a first Club World Cup crown, last season’s domestic cup double. Twice in the past four seasons they have missed out on the title by a solitary point. They have appeared in three of the past five Champions League finals. This season will be only the second time since 2017-18 that Liverpool haven’t amassed 90-plus points.

Some £240million has been invested in the club’s infrastructure. The stadium’s capacity will increase to 61,000 when the redeveloped Anfield Road Stand opens this summer, following on from the new Main Stand and the new training complex at Kirkby. The important work of the LFC Foundation has also expanded across Merseyside and beyond during their reign, improving the lives of thousands of people.

FSG doesn’t take money out of the club like the Glazers but the complaint has always been that it doesn’t put cash in either. It expects Liverpool to live within their means.

The latest accounts, for the year to the end of May 2022, showed record revenues of £594million but the costs of running the club were so high that the pre-tax profit was just £7.5m – despite a season when Liverpool played every possible game. The wage bill had rocketed to £366m with only Manchester United (£384m) recording a bigger outlay on salaries.

“We continue building at Liverpool Football Club in a responsible manner,” Henry told the Liverpool Echo recently. “We’ve seen many football clubs (including LFC previously) go down unsustainable paths. We have and will continue to focus our attention on investing wisely in the transfer market and we remain incredibly proud of our squad.”

It’s hardly been a sell-to-buy policy. Since winning the title in 2019-20, Liverpool have shelled out around £316million on transfers (including potential add-ons) and stand to recoup around £182m from the sales they have sanctioned during that period. In January, they bought Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven for a fee that could rise to £44m and nobody went out the door.

However, this season has exposed the folly of failing to strengthen the midfield department last summer. Liverpool didn’t pursue an alternative target after missing out on Aurelien Tchouameni, who left Monaco for Real Madrid.

Tchouameni had been a Liverpool target before he moved to Real Madrid (Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

“The big issue I’ve found covering Liverpool and talking about the owners is the moment you try to provide balance and counter certain points, you come across as being ‘FSG In’. You get accused of being an apologist,” says Machin.

“It’s very hard to have a sensible discussion about it. There’s no middle ground — ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us’. It’s a cesspit on social media. The reality is that ‘FSG In’ doesn’t exist. I’m not sure anyone is a staunch FSG supporter. It’s just that what’s a massive issue for some fans, isn’t for many others.

“I wrote books on the Champions League and Premier League winning seasons and when I looked back on all the comments we had on our shows after bad results in those seasons it was always the same – ‘FSG Out’. People pounced on whatever transfer hadn’t happened the previous window as proof that we weren’t going to achieve anything. After every win it was, ‘What a great team, Klopp and Edwards are the best in the business’.

“I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. As a channel, we try to accentuate the great side of being a LFC fan regardless of whether you’re from the city or not. For me, it’s about buying the right players, not the most expensive ones. Liverpool have proved that time and time again. But some want the sugar-daddy approach.”

And that’s where this becomes so divisive. There’s a moral quandary.

There are some who just want Liverpool to have the financial muscle to attract the top players and aren’t particularly bothered about where that cash comes from.

Others hate the idea of following a similar path to City or Newcastle and becoming a sportswashing project linked to a state with a dubious human-rights record. Who is the ideal owner? Sheikh Mansour? City have won so much during the Abu Dhabi reign but they are also facing 115 charges of financial wrongdoing and if found guilty, the consequences could be catastrophic.

“That kind of takeover would be much harder to pull off at a club like Liverpool,” adds Machin. “They wouldn’t be treated like saviours. They would be greeted by a lot of resistance. Newcastle had been under the heel of Mike Ashley for so long. They felt liberated. Man City had that feeling when they were bought out.

“United have had a relative dry spell and their fans are sick of the Glazers taking money out of the club – maybe enough for them to feel the same way as their club is set to change hands again.

“But Liverpool’s success is still so fresh. Yes, there’s frustration but the owners have also done a lot of good things. We’re certainly not at a tipping point yet.”

The coming months will be highly significant. Missing out on a top-four finish would leave a significant gap in the finances. Although Klopp has already said that shouldn’t be a barrier to hefty investment, given the need to strengthen the squad, and the owners know what’s needed to get Liverpool back to where they were.

They are currently in the process of recruiting a new sporting director to take over from Julian Ward at the end of the season. It’s expected to be an external appointment.

“If Liverpool win enough games to qualify for the Champions League then ‘FSG Out’ won’t go away but it certainly won’t be as noisy as it is currently,” says Machin. “Whatever happens, it’s a massive summer in terms of showing the ambition to really kick on and challenge again.

“Renewing so many contracts on big wages, the impact of COVID-19, and not moving on certain players when they had the opportunity, like Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, has left FSG needing to go and throw money above and beyond what’s usually the case to ensure the value of their asset is maintained.

“The model they have stuck to needs to be started from scratch again. The squad needs refilling. It’s make or break. This summer is big in terms of how a lot of fans will view the owners.”

(Photos: Getty Images)

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