The sun never sets on Fenway Sports Group’s empire, of which Liverpool are one sports team among many. They are, however, the most valuable asset in the portfolio.
Recently, Liverpool were appraised at over £4bn by Football Benchmark, a subsidiary of the Deloitte accounting firm. That represents an astonishing markup on the £300m FSG paid for the club in 2010.
Even at a time when enterprise values are rising across the board in football, Liverpool’s growth has been proportionately faster than their peer group. Even after a fallow season like 2025-26, the graph keeps trending up and to the right, buoyed by ever-climbing commercial and matchday income.
Liverpool’s global appeal is the most marketable facet of the club, to FSG. The club estimate that they have about 300 million fans worldwide – and it is that which separates them from the other teams in FSG’s roster.
Rate Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool appointment! Would any other manager have been a better pick?
The Boston Red Sox, for example, are independently profitable but their appeal is mostly limited to North America, where baseball is one sport among many. It’s a similar story with their NASCAR outfit RFK Racing and the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons that John Henry and his peers have been prepared to flip the Penguins in a relatively short turnaround time. While they are now 15 years into their premiership at Anfield, they are now selling the Penguins after barely five years.
The sale to the Hoffmann family, which at £1.25bn will represent a profit of nearly £600m on the price they paid for the hockey team back in 2021, was agreed several months ago but is yet to go through.
However, as reported by The Athletic, the transition of power will take place at some point in June.
That will likely coincide with the opening of the summer transfer window for Liverpool.
Last summer, Liverpool spent £450m, but most of their high profile recruits – the likes of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz – have so far failed to live up to their billings. With Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and now Ibrahima Konate leaving the club, major surgery is required once again.
It appears that Andoni Iraola is the man FSG have anointed to lead the revamp. Alongside, Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes, of course.
Liverpool fans hoping for a chunk of FSG’s £1.25bn windfall will be redirected to their transfer kitty, though, will probably be disappointed.
Apart from the £127m that the private equity firm Dynasty Equity paid for a tiny stake in the club in 2023, the only external investments made in Liverpool in the FSG era have been for infrastructure upgrades, to expand Anfield and to build the AXA Training Centre.
Liverpool had low transfer debts when they went on their £450m spree last summer and they recouped around £200m in sales, too. They also have credit facilities which they can draw down on, while they have probably shed the best part of £45m in wages with Salah, Robertson and Konate leaving.
That should give them the flexibility to operate this summer without further investment from FSG.
A centre-back and a wider attacker seem to be the priority for the club’s dealmakers, but they are far from the only areas that need addressing.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
