Bill Shankly famously declared that a football club is made up of a holy trinity.
Players, the manager and supporters sat at the heart of the Liverpool godfather’s ethos while ‘directors don’t come into it – they are only there to sign the cheques’.
Fenway Sports Group are routinely confronted with that sentiment by the Anfield faithful whenever their 16-year tenure has veered dangerously into avaricious territory.
Liverpool entertaining new investment bid
As Reds’ owners, the Americans have racked up more own goals than Jamie Carragher. From conspiring to create the ill-fated European Super League to an audacious attempt to trademark the word ‘Liverpool’ – and everything in between – John W. Henry and Co. have routinely been forced into embarrassing climbdowns.
FSG’s time at the helm on Merseyside was always set to have a limited shelf life, especially as figureheads Henry and Tom Werner took on a club racked by debt and disarray in October 2010 at the ages of 61 and 60 respectively. Even Mike Gordon, tasked with overseeing day-to-day operations, is now in his seventh decade of life.
The Boston-based investment vehicle is not actively eyeing an exit strategy, but a potential succession plan has emerged amid talks over selling a minority stake to a consortium headed up by the former Queens Park Rangers chairman Amit Bhatia.
It is not the first time they have diluted Liverpool’s power dynamic after Dynasty Equity took up a fractional share in 2023, which was valued between £82m and £164m, but this latest approach offers the owners of the Boston Red Sox a viable long-term out.
Bhatia’s group, which is backed by his father-in-law and steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, has set its sights on a share of 30% in exchange for a £1.35bn investment that would see the club’s valuation rise to £4.5bn – outstripping several Premier League peers.
Several high-profile names are also being courted to add financial gravitas to the bid with Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin both recently approached to join, although neither have indicated any leaning either way.
Irrespective of whether the pair jump aboard, Bhatia’s potential candidacy can act as a force for good; not least as Mittal’s estimated fortune stands at £23.2bn – nearly two-and-a-half times greater than the current valuation of FSG’s overall sporting portfolio.
The 46-year-old is not your average football club investor. Unlike those he seeks to join forces with, there will be no learning curve as he has already experienced the assorted highs and lows of ownership during 18 seasons in Loftus Road’s corridors of power.
In ‘The Four Year Plan’, the documentary which charted QPR’s attempt to return to the Premier League, he is portrayed as a diligent operator who often soothed tensions inflamed by the belligerent majority shareholder Flavio Briatore. While the Italian bore the brunt of fan invective, Bhatia’s willingness to engage – both in and outside of the boardroom setting – earned an invaluable amount of goodwill. Once the cameras stopped rolling, he continued to demonstrate a clear understanding of the values which supporters hold dear in their emotional connection with the club.
Never was that more evident than in his decision to resign as the Hoops’ vice-chairman, just weeks after a first campaign in the top flight since 1995/96 was secured, over plans for a 40% price hike on season tickets. Although he later returned to the hierarchy, it offers an insight of what Kopites can expect should he join their ranks.
FSG have persistently tested the waters over Anfield’s entrance fees, most recently at the end of last season when they were met with fresh opposition towards attempts to raise ticket prices for the next three years in line with the rate of inflation. An initial doubling down on the proposal proved to be short-lived but only served to preserve the seeds of mistrust which the club’s core supporters continue to harbour about their overlords.
Bhatia has the potential to ease such tensions with an outward appearance of a fan in the directors’ box. A preference to shun the matchday attire of stuffy suits favoured by his potential new cohorts is matched by embracing the raw emotion of football while he has, on occasion, been guilty of revelling in his surroundings by pressing the flesh at QPR’s training base decked in a full training rigout, complete with his initials.
Liverpool fans could be forgiven for fearing that this potential new minority investor is just another Christian Purslow, whose spell as their CEO went down in infamy, but Bhatia is hardly in the same league as the self-proclaimed ‘Fernando Torres of finance’.
He also has no qualms about running with big names and personalities, as the audacious plays for Bezos and Saverin, as well as tussling with Briatore and fellow F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone during his time in west London both fully attest.
If Bhatia becomes Liverpool’s new figurehead in waiting, supporters could do far worse than having a friend in high places to steer them through the eventual post-FSG era.