The owner of the Boston Celtics NBA team hasn’t ruled out the possibility of becoming a minority investor in Liverpool.
That’s according to the Liverpool Echo, who report on the rumours linking US billionaire Stephen Pagliuca with the Reds.
Having recently spoken at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, the 68-year-old – who part-owns Italian club Atalanta – was asked whether he had considered investing in the Merseyside outfit or Manchester United, having tried to takeover at Chelsea last year.
“I looked at Liverpool about 15 years ago when they had that situation,” said Pagliuca.
“I can’t talk specifically about any transactions we are working on because of confidentiality agreements but obviously we are aware of those transactions.
“The questions on those transactions in general is what price level do we think is sustainable? Obviously the Chelsea process which received a record price has probably motivated folks to try and monetise clubs that they have owned for a long time, and we are certainly in a period where values have been driven up.
“Anyone who buys a club has to assess the economic opportunity, how much money we have to put in to keep up the quality and what that will cost you. That is what we do in everything we are looking at.”
Pagliuca hasn’t ruled out Liverpool investment
The Celtics owner was one of the shortlisted candidates in the Chelsea takeover process last year, as the Government pushed for a quick sale following the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich.
Losing out to Todd Boehly’s consortium, Pagliuca was obviously ready for a full purchase of the west London club.
Therefore, this is likely to be the case for any other investment – whether that be in Liverpool or Man United.
This may be problematic for FSG, as they are only looking to take on minority investment.
For many prospective owners, this isn’t appealing.
This could be the case with Pagliuca, which would ultimately put his group off from investing into the Merseyside outfit – whom they have been linked with since November.