The suggestion Fenway Sports Group could be open to a sale of Liverpool has set tongues wagging among the fanbase and beyond.
FSG have reaffirmed their commitment to seek outside investment and have put together a full sales presentation for interested parties.
Speculation has already intensified over potential investors in the Reds, who have have been valued at more than £3billion by Forbes. And such chatter has evoked memories of previous ownership battles with the club having changed hands twice in the last 15 years.
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Steve Morgan vs Thailand Prime Minister
The Moores family had owned Liverpool for more than 50 years and, back in 2004, majority shareholder David Moores decided they had taken the club as far as they possibly could.
Premier League rivals such as Chelsea were backed by billionaire owners and Liverpool simply didn't have the finances to compete. "It’s not enough to be rich any more," said Moores. "You need to be super-rich in the modern game.”
The search for buyers began and Redrow Homes owner Steve Morgan had a £73million offer rejected in May 2004 as it was deemed to undervalue the club. But it wasn't the first time he'd made a proposal.
Earlier that year, he'd seen a £50m opening bid turned down but after his significantly-restructured second offer was rebuffed, the businessman and third-largest shareholder in the club reluctantly withdrew his interest. Morgan instead went on to buy Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2007 for a token £10 - on condition he then invested £30m - and sold nine years later.
Thai media tycoon Paiboon Damrongchaitham was another to express an interest, but it was his country's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who made a definitive move, tabling a £60m bid for 30% of the shares in Liverpool. It emerged the deal would be state-funded through a one-off lottery in Thailand, but Shinawatra was keen to own a stake in any Premier League club - as revealed by his spokesperson Jakrapob Penkair in 2004.
"The prime minister is aiming for Liverpool but he has high regard for all Premiership teams," he said. "He wouldn't mind any Premiership team at all. Ultimately, I have to say that any team will be fine."
Ultimately, Shinawatra's grand plan fell through and he was forced to walk away as his popularity in Thailand was dropping and a general election was on the horizon. Having earlier failed with a bid for Fulham, he took control of Manchester City in 2007 before selling to Abu Dhabi United Group barely a year later for more than double his £82m outlay.
Dubai then lost out to Hicks and Gillett
With Liverpool officially up for sale, there was interest from across the globe. The Dubai International Capital investment group, owned by the Dubai government, entered discussions with Liverpool as early as 2005, but were forced to pull out in January 2007.
A formal offer was made in December 2006 but the deal was moving at a far slower pace than desired by the club. Former Reds chief executive Rick Parry said in an interview in 2015: "Bearing in mind the first conversation was in Istanbul (in 2005), we were still negotiating with DIC in February 2007.
"And if there’s real commitment from the top in Dubai, things don’t take that long. They’d come, then they’d go, then they’d come back again with a slightly different deal and then they’d go again. We were missing the transfer window, we’ve got David (Moores) literally lending the club the money to buy Dirk Kuyt to keep us going and there was just something about it where everyone was thinking this is not feeling right."
The Liverpool board had initially rejected George Gillett in favour of Dubai, but the American returned with an improved offer and the club wished to have more time to consider it - which ultimately led to DIC ending negotiations. DIC ruled out a fresh bid in September 2008 after the first signs of trouble of the Liverpool ownership, with Gillett having been forced to seek the assistance of Texas businessman Tom Hicks to help finance his purchase.
FSG could have been beaten to Liverpool ownership by rival
After taking over Liverpool in a £220m deal in February 2007, it took Hicks and Gillett just three-and-a-half years to drive the club to the brink of administration. And in October 2010, the ownership finally changed hands and Fenway Sports Group were tasked with rebuilding the club after a £300m takeover was confirmed following a courtroom battle.
But it could have been a different story as they weren't the only ones looking to buy Liverpool in 2010. In fact, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and a direct rival to FSG, looked into purchasing Liverpool on two separate occasions.
Kraft was first interested in 2007 and then once again in 2010 - but both times he backed out.
“Robert Kraft would have been a magnificent owner,” former Liverpool CEO Rick Parry told the Anfield Wrap in 2015. “Another person with a great track record in Boston, with the Patriots and the New England Revolution. He came over and visited Anfield.”
But it seems the second time around, Kraft's interest was far less genuine than it was in 2007.
“Bob got involved in that deal because he knew those guys (FSG duo John Henry and Tom Werner) were sniffing around the English Premier League,” an ex-Patriots executive told Liverpool.com last year. “He had no interest — he couldn’t afford it — but if he could tick them off that was a win in our book. And he only cares about winning.”
Interest from the Far East
It wasn't just Kraft that was a potential buyer for Liverpool when Hicks and Gillett were forced to put the club up for sale. The Times revealed in 2010 the Chinese Government were the mystery backer behind a bid for the club in the August of that year.
Potential foreign buyers - several from the Middle East - with the China bid said to value the club between £300m and £350m.
Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim, though, came closer to buying the club and he made two offers in a similar region, reportedly of £300m and £320m - both of which were turned down despite Liverpool being around £250m in debt and reliant on assistance from the Royal Bank of Scotland to continue operating.
Lim said at the time: "I have tried to engage constructively with the Board and RBS based on an offer, funded from my existing resources, providing greater value for Liverpool Football Club, more cash for players, full repayment of all bank debts and a long-term personal commitment to build a better future for the club and its supporters. The board and RBS have chosen not to respond or to discuss my offer with me."
Lim was forced to pull out of the race as the decision had already been made with FSG becoming the new owners of Liverpool. Lim instead now owns a controlling stake in Spanish side Valencia and has a 40% stake in Salford City.
A version of this story was first published on October 7 2021
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