FSG owner John W Henry says Liverpool FC is not for sale but confirms he is still seeking fresh investment. Tony McDonough reports
John W Henry has ended speculation about the future of Liverpool Football Club declaring that he is not looking to sell.
Since club owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) announced they were seeking new investors in November, speculation has been rife it would be open to offers to buy the Reds for around £3bn. This is 10 times the amount they bought the club for in 2010.
However, while FSG owner John W Henry confirmed it was still seeing a fresh injection of capital into Liverpool he insisted a full sale was not being considered.
Responding to a question from the Boston Sports Journal, Mr Henry said: “I know there has been a lot of conversation and quotes about LFC, but I keep to the facts: we merely formalised an ongoing process.
“Will we be in England forever? No. Are we selling LFC? No. Are we talking with investors about LFC? Yes. Will something happen there? I believe so, but it won’t be a sale. Have we sold anything in the past 20+ years?”
In March 2021 FSG sold a £533m stake in Liverpool to RedBird Capital Partners. RedBird is partly owned by US basketball legend LeBron James who has collaborated with the Reds on a new sportswear collection.
In January LBN reported that Liverpool FC had generated the third-highest revenues of any football club in Europe in the 2021/22 season.
The Deloitte Football Money League revealed the top 20 highest revenue generating football clubs for the 2021/22 season. Manchester City was top with £619.1m, Real Madrid second at £604.5m and Liverpool third at £594.3m.
This pushed Liverpool up four places in the league table – its highest-ever position in the 26-year history of the survey. It was a big increase on the club’s revenues for the previous season which came in at £487.4m.
Earlier this month LBN revealed that Liverpool plans to open standalone retail stores in the US selling club merchandise.
In an interview, the club’s head of merchandising and retail, Mike Cox, said that it was still in the “early days” of fully exploiting the potential for overseas merchandise sales.
He said: “There is still massive potential for us to realise the opportunity there. We are growing our e-commerce business in the US. The goal for us is to provide different merchandise for our existing fans and also attract new fans to the club.
“We are looking at how we can take a different approach to realise that growth potential. We are in discussions with a couple of potential partners out there to expand our retail footprint.
We don’t have an in-store offering in America and we are in the process of trying to finalise that. The long-term goal would be to have standalone stores there, as in other countries.”