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Fenway Sports Group is on the lookout for another football club to add to its portfolio, that much we know for sure.
In bringing back Michael Edwards to the fold earlier this month, FSG had to find a compelling reason for the former Liverpool sporting director to return, creating a ‘CEO of football’ role for him where one of the elements would involve the addition of another club.
Edwards has already wasted little time in hiring a new sporting director for the Reds, with Richard Hughes joining from Bournemouth, and attention will soon turn to just what club joins the ranks as FSG becomes the latest team owner to pursue a multi-club model.
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Speaking at the time of his appointment at the beginning of the month, Edwards, who will be working for FSG as opposed to Liverpool, said: “One of the biggest factors in my decision is the commitment to acquire and oversee an additional club.
I believe that to remain competitive, investment and expansion of the current football portfolio is necessary.”
FSG had looked at acquiring another club back in 2021 and 2022, with a particular focus being on Brazil.
In 2021, Brazilian passed a law that gave greater encouragement to outside investors to arrive into the market, allowing for the creation of a ‘football limited company’ (Sociedade Anonima do Futebol, SAF), which created a special tax regulation for clubs in a country where the vast majority of teams had been non-profit.
Among the clubs to move to an SAF structure were Botafogo and Cruzeiro, with the former eventually acquired by US billionaire and Crystal Palace shareholder John Textor, who also owns French side Lyon and a number of other clubs across the globe.
Another motivating factor was and remains, that Brazilian football is planning for a restructure, a kind of Brazilian Super League, where the biggest market clubs compete.
That is something that promises to significantly enhance the value of the media rights in the country.
FSG had some interest in the earlier stages in Cruzeiro, a club that was eventually acquired by Brazilian legend Ronaldo and a group of investors.
FSG was never far along with their interest in the Brazilian market, and with some soul searching to be had toward the end of 2021 and into 2022, where the ownership group opened themselves up to a potential sale by seeking interest to get an idea on an up to date and realistic valuation.
After all, Manchester City owners City Football Group have an entire network of them, 13 to be exact.
But after the Moises Caicedo affair in the summer, where the club broke from the norm and opted to bid £111m for the Ecuadorian, a deal that was eventually gazumped by Chelsea, who paid £115m, the FSG view is that they could be doing more to find these players earlier.
Just two years previous, Caicedo had cost just £4.5m when he joined Brighton & Hove Albion from Independiente del Valle in his native country.
Another club could help identify talent at an earlier stage, house them, develop them in the Liverpool way and aid the efforts in getting the required GBE (Governing Body Endorsement) points for them to play in England.
Another club also provides FSG with another asset, an uncorrelated one at that, one likely to grow in value that can aid player trading and not be so beholden to the changes that happen in the economy, with sports fairly resilient in that respect.
South America is a viable option for FSG, still.
But it seems more likely that Liverpool’s owners may look to Europe, in a market that offers a route to UEFA competition, which is something that aids GBE greatly and can help acclimate players from continents such as South America or Africa.
France is a well-trodden route for African talent to acclimate to European football, while Portugal has seen plenty of success in bringing on players from Brazil, Argentina, and others.
The Netherlands and Belgium have also proven to be good markets for player growth, both offering a good chance of on-pitch success, with Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s ownership of Union Saint-Gilloise demonstrating the potential success of the model, with Japanese winger Kaoru Mitoma having benefited greatly from his time in Belgium, with the team having been regulars in European competition in recent seasons.
One club that FSG isn’t targeting, however, is French Ligue 1 side Toulouse, a team owned by 11% shareholders in FSG, RedBird Capital Partners, the owners of AC Milan.
On Wednesday some reports emerged that FSG and Edwards were looking at acquiring the Les Violets, but well-placed sources in the US that the ECHO have spoken to have rejected the claims as false.
There will be no quick decision on a team acquisition for FSG, and there will be multiple boxes that a new club would have to tick.
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