FSG and Modern Football
AN ARTICLE BY MATTY
<Obviously, the big news this week is that FSG have made it known that they are open to new investment into the club and would also consider selling the club if the right offer is made. While this news itself doesn’t say “FSG are selling the whole thing immediately”, it does say that they are open to it and, regardless of whether or not they want to sell, they do indeed want new investment. If you ask me, they should ask newly-minted billionaire and FSG partner LeBron James if he can spare a few extra nickels and increase his investment, but I digress.
A rumor that was confirmed by Paul Joyce suggests that the collapse of the Super League as well as the recent purchase of Chelsea by an American consortium led by Todd Boehly has made FSG more open to selling the club. The asking price is suggested to be £4 billion. While there is lots of speculation in regards to the motive for FSG wanting to sell now, we must remember they are businessmen, not fans. And as owners, they have done everything they set out to do at this club. They’ve renovated Anfield, they’ve constructed a brand new training ground. They’ve given us great success domestically and on the continent, they’ve brought an infrastructure that is both smart and sustainable. In FSG’s eyes, they’ve maximized their investment into the club and could now look to sell at peak value. People may say it’s a hustle, but that’s a traditional capitalist move.
I also don’t think it’s unfair to suggest that the unwillingness to curb the spending of nation-states has had an effect on FSG. Perhaps they know that, as time goes on, the spending gap between our club and clubs such as Newcastle, City, and now Chelsea (even though they aren’t owned by a nation-state, they’re still spending like one) will only grow greater. The rising costs of the game itself will only grow in size and power as City, Newcastle and PSG continue to make a mockery of whatever financial restrictions are in place. And perhaps FSG senses that those rising costs are costs they cannot afford. They recently bought the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Red Sox are their baby, and it’s rumored that they might be interested in buying an NBA team should the NBA decide to expand to Vegas. With other interests taking precedent, perhaps FSG wants to focus more on those endeavors.
Of course, even if FSG want to sell, they’ll need to make sure the club is left in good hands. There is one problem with this theory, though: who can realistically stump up £4 billion for a football club? The answer? Nobody good. I’ve seen the name Jim Ratcliffe thrown around, but I fear he’d be like Boehly, constantly trying to do things his way and ripping apart the structure that’s been carefully crafted over years of success. However, that might be preferable to the obvious alternative: the Middle East. It was mentioned that Dubai are interested in buying a top European team, that we turned down a bid from the Saudis in 2018, and that Middle East investors have been waiting for the opportunity for our club to become available for sale.
The idea of being bought by Middle Eastern owners and becoming another City-style team would go against a lot of what this club stands for. However, I somewhat doubt that a lot of the non-Liverpudlian fans would care much if we were bought out by Dubai. I think a lot of them would cheer, if I’m being honest. Unfortunately, sports themselves have become an extension of business-minded practices. The soul and passion of supporters is taken for granted as the push for prestige and trophies takes precedent. I don’t mean to generalize Americans and the way they cheer for their teams, but a lot of us take the mentality of “if you don’t win a championship, it doesn’t matter what you do, you suck”. And that mentality has been adopted by more Liverpool fans than any of us would like to admit.
Liverpool of all teams being bought out by the Middle East would be yet another symbol of the game becoming a slave to money. Yes, we would likely win more trophies, Klopp would beat Pep silly if he stayed and enjoyed the riches of an unlimited budget to buy whoever he pleased, but it would come at the expense of the club’s values. At the expense of the morals of the fan base. But does anybody really care about morals anymore? Look at the sports world and the world as a whole. Constant wars that never end, the general populace being pitted against each other to make the rich richer and the fat cats fatter. The powerful keep us under their control and take away our liberties so we can’t do anything to take back our livelihoods. Liverpool selling out to make more money just seems like another step towards the world that the powerful crave. A world where there are billionaires and slaves and nothing else. A soulless husk of a human race meant only to make money.
I think the person who would receive the most benefit of a new owner, but would also have to sacrifice the most, is none other than our manager Jurgen Klopp. If FSG do look to sell and the new owner is who I fear it will eventually be, Klopp would benefit greatly if he stayed. He would, for the first time in his coaching career, have zero budget restraints. He could sign whoever he pleased and coach them up into an unstoppable unit. He’d win all the trophies he could ever possibly dream of. But all of this would come at the sacrifice of his values. Klopp has forever been against the idea of state-owned clubs, he’s always said that he enjoys challenges and underdog stories. That challenge and underdog mentality would be more or less gone if we became a money club. He’d have to take back everything he’s said about City. And Klopp, to me at least, isn’t the type that’d do that. At the same time, everybody has a price.
This is likely all over nothing, though. FSG will likely find a new investor and keep things rolling. Or at least, that might be the hope we have at the moment. We’ll see what happens.
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