FSG delivered DIRE warning over multi-club ownership ambitions

Liverpool welcomed former sporting director Michael Edwards back to the fold last summer as part of the post-Jurgen Klopp shakeup.

A key factor influencing the executive’s decision to return to Fenway Sports Group as CEO of Football was an ambition to begin a multi-club ownership model.

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Other Premier League clubs involved in this type of arrangement include Manchester City and Chelsea, with Liverpool taking steps to recruit other key personnel in a bid to get the model off the ground.

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Former Benfica technical director Pedro Marques, once of City Football Group, also came in, and there have been plenty of reports linking the Reds with purchases of other teams around Europe and the world.

Vasco da Gama, Bordeaux and most recently Malaga have been touted as potential new clubs in the FSG empire, which would have Liverpool sitting at the centre.

But FSG and the club have now been warned that a multi-club ownership model would not translate into success.

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While CFG’s much-vaunted stable of 13 clubs have won plenty of trophies over the past decade or so, they have continued to lose money with their most recent accounts revealing a pre-tax loss for the 2023/24 season of £122.2 million.

Since its foundation in 2013, CFG has lost £972.8m, according to Sportcal, despite Manchester City becoming a Premier League powerhouse. City posted £715m in revenues for the latest accounting period, with CFG as a group raking in £933.1m in total.

“Michael Edwards has been there and clearly sees the value in connecting with a club like Malaga,” University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire told TBR Football.

“It’s a model but a largely untested one. I think there are a lot of clubs going down this route for fear of missing out. There is a FOMO element to this.

“There are consequences of Brexit that have accelerated some clubs’ interest in this. However, we are now nine years on from Brexit and there are plenty of clubs who have got on fine without a multi-club model.

“From Liverpool’s point of view, having a club like Malaga can act as a halfway house in terms of broader recruitment. Having consistency of style and culture through a multi-club network can have benefits too.

“If you look at City Football Group, Man City are very much the mothership and the organisation is not a success financially. They make huge losses.

“FSG, by nature, are a very cautious organisation, so we will have to see how that model plays out for them. They don’t want to lose money.”

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FSG feature plenty of clubs and franchises inside their sporting portfolio, including Liverpool, the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

Meanwhile, Edwards and Marques must wait for another football club to be added to an as yet unseen multi-club empire.