Liverpool FC, one of the biggest and most successful football clubs in the world, has been put up for sale by its owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG).
FSG bought the Northwest Premier League Club just over 12 years ago in a deal worth £300mln.
At the time, the club was on the brink of financial collapse, with an old stadium, outdated training facility and a team lingering just above the relegation zone.
Since then, the US-based owners have expanded the stadium to upwards of 60,000 capacity and invested in a £50mln state-of-the-art training camp.
On the pitch, the club has been crowned English, European, and world champions.
So, today's announcement will have come as a shock given the lack of noise surrounding a sale.
However, might now be the best time for FSG to sell?
How much will FSG want and why now?
Recent history should tell us the ballpark figure that FSG will be looking for.
Chelsea was sold by Roman Abrahmovic to Todd Boehly for just over £4bn earlier this year after the Russian had his assets frozen by the UK government following the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
FSG no doubt will be looking to command a similar figure, according to Conrad Wiacek, a sports analyst at GlobalData.
Should Liverpool be sold for £5bn, that would represent a 16 times growth in valuation from 12 years ago.
On the matter of why now, a few obvious reasons spring to mind.
Last year’s failed attempt at a European Super League, where FSG was one of the driving forces, has dented the guaranteed revenue it would have provided.
Additionally, “Covid was expensive for a lot of football clubs,” according to Wiacek.
Perhaps, FSG realised that they had taken the club, at least at an on-the-pitch level, as far as they could, and would be unable to compete with the financial power of state-owned clubs such as Manchester City and Newcastle United.
However, Wiacek suggests that the “biggest factor” is FSG’s interest in the National Basketball Association franchise expansion.
“FSG is rumoured to be one of the groups vying for one of the NBA expansion teams,” Wiacek said.
“The rumours are is that there are going to be two new expansion teams in the NBA, with one of those being in Las Vegas.”
“FSG is said to be keen on being the owners of that group to give it a presence in the NBA, alongside baseball and ice hockey in the US.”
Basketballer LeBron James, who has a close relationship with FSG, and even owns a small stake in Liverpool, is said to be the face of this new Vegas franchise.
Who could cough up the money?
£5bn is a large sum of money to cough up, and not one many could afford.
Options in terms of state-funded Middle Eastern oil giants are running low, with Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all tied up with Manchester City, Newcastle and French outfit PSG.
Looking further east and to China also doesn’t seem too likely, according to Wiacek, with the Chinese heavily reducing investment in football since Covid.
Wiacek believes that, at this stage, potential buyers could be a US consortium or hedge fund, whicvh will undoubtedly look at running the club as a business and seek immediate returns on investment.
One name that was heavily linked with the Chelsea sale, and has been vocal in his interest in buying a Premier League club is Jim Ratcliffe, who founded chemicals group Ineos in 1998 and has a net worth of US$11bn.
His supposed allegiance to Manchester United may mean he doesn’t put his name in the hat, but as mentioned, he has been vocal about buying a football club in the past, and one has just been put up for sale.
What would it mean for the Premier League?
Wiacek suggests that the Glazers, the owners of Manchester United, will be looking on very closely at what is going on at Anfield.
A sale could spark them to finally cut ties with the Manchester club, something its fanbase has been demanding for well over a decade.
Owners of the other ‘big 6’ clubs, such as Arsenal and Tottenham may also look at selling while the price is high, should they also feel they have extracted enough value from their respective clubs.
Shares in Manchester United, publicly listed in the US, jumped 3.6% to US$13.4o0