Matt Ladson, editor of This Is Anfield
Liverpool fans are known to be skeptical of any headline change; We’ve been burned once before, so it’s definitely a case of more worry than excitement regarding the potential sale of the club by Fenway Sports Group. While FSG have their critics and they have been wrong, overall they are good owners. All Liverpool need is for their owners to be a little more risky in the transfer market, something even Jürgen Klopp recently admitted.
So where do you find owners like FSG but who are a bit riskier/willing to put their own money in to keep up with Manchester City et al? Certainly not an easy find. Any new owner opens up a lot of questions, such as ticket prices, transfer meddling and more. There should be concern.
Personally, I would prefer FSG to continue to hold a majority stake while selling some shares, which would allow for an injection of cash that would allow Liverpool to compete financially with their state rivals. But that could be as hard to find as an investor with a good human rights record who has £4 billion to spare.
Pep Lijnders: Liverpool owners are ‘acting in the best interests of the club’ – video
Neil Atkinson, Presenter and CEO of The Anfield Wrap
I really don’t care who owns Liverpool as long as it’s not a state, it’s not fascist, it’s not being given the big shot by attention seeking strangers, it’s not someone looking to raise their profile to avoid the political assassination , or seeks to launder money, and is an organization that wants to develop the club on and off the field, including the women’s, and is committed to hiring good people to work at all levels of the club and does not take cash. of the club
Barring a major error on the women’s side, which is expected to be in the process of being corrected, FSG has largely succeeded in erasing these low bars; most Premier League owners have fallen badly somewhere along the line. It’s important to recognize that FSG haven’t turned your stomach, they’ve played a part in making Liverpool very competitive and when they’ve gone wrong, as they have, they’ve turned around quickly when they’ve had to strongly opposed. But who wants to put an owner or ownership of all things on a banner? Yack. Also stomach turning.
So what if not them? The percentage cry is someone who will further erode at least one of the above. The smart cry is to go back to the Crouch review and ask again for a much larger set of rules and regulations and, if necessary, legislation about who should come to own the huge cultural institutions that are the our football clubs.
Liverpool fans spoke out during the Premier League visit of Sunderland in February 2016 over FSG’s proposal to introduce £77 tickets at Anfield. The decision was quickly reversed. Photo: Peter Powell/EPA
On the face of it, this might be an act of homage to when then Liverpool owner David Moores was muddying the waters for investors some 20 years ago, offering 10% of the club to the likes of Steve Morgan and Granada Television in exchange for bags of money. and little significant to say in the direction we would be traveling. Alternatively, we may be looking at the first step towards the end of FSG at Anfield. That said, I’m not convinced that this is anything other than speculative, given that they are in the middle of rebuilding the Anfield Road end. Who builds a new stand if they have a premeditated eye on the exit door?
Either way, FSG has sent a clear message that it is happy to hear from stakeholders. If they were to say goodbye to the club soon, no one could seriously argue that they wouldn’t leave us in a significantly healthier position compared to where they found us. They haven’t been perfect, though, and when they’ve gone wrong it’s often been spectacular, but they’ve been willing to bounce back.
Any potential new owners remain as hypothetical at this point as FSG’s exit, but I wouldn’t want us to go down the same path as Manchester City and Newcastle United. I would classify myself as being in a low-level trepidation state.
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Amar Singh, Sports Marketing Expert
This week’s news has some Liverpool fans, especially the younger ones, dreaming of a state-funded sports washing consortium swooping in and signing Kylian Mbappé and giving us the spending power to match Manchester City. My message to these fans is simple: be careful what you wish for. For those of us who remember the state the club was in 12 years ago after the disastrous Hicks and Gillett ownership, FSG will be a saviour.
They have not been perfect owners; his role in the Super League debacle is a major blot on his notebook. But Liverpool have won every trophy during his tenure. They have also invested heavily in Anfield, Kirkby’s new training ground and have helped the club grow its commercial income exponentially. FSG also made one of the biggest decisions in Liverpool history: hiring Klopp.
Liverpool have a deep history and a fan base with a very clear set of shared values. If it were ever to be used as a tool to further the agenda of a nefarious state with values and laws contrary to what the club stands for, many of us would find it hard to bear. Therefore, if FSG is being sold, it is more important that the new owners do not use the club for geopolitical interests than if they sign Mbappé.
Jürgen Klopp (second right) at Liverpool’s trophy parade in May. The manager was hired by FSG. Photograph: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Ian Salmon, playwright and author
I’m broken I have no desire for my club to be owned by a nation-state and used to influence in a way that ill-suits my politics, or become an oligarch’s latest hobby; and I don’t want any hint of creative accounting to tarnish our achievements. The reality, however, is that if you want to compete at the top of the Premier League, you need the unlimited funds of owners willing to invest heavily and frequently rather than working towards self-sufficiency.
I’m not sure what really constitutes a “good” owner now – I don’t think there are any ethically sound billionaires for the love of the game, and I think we may be about to find out that FSG were preferable. to many alternatives. They are owners who have made significant mistakes in various areas, but who have reached a high level without being as problematic as we as fans can see.
Some fans say this could be the time when they can no longer support the club. I don’t see it as an option. My first game was five decades ago; it’s the club my grandparents supported. I can’t let it go.