Liverpool Banter 4

14 Aug 2026 21:24:17
FSG have always been open to the right investment opportunities and therefore I chose to believe that FSG did test the waters regarding an exit strategy after Chelsea's forced sale and INEOS investment in Man Utd. This investment may be a result of that "public flirtation" at that time?!

14 Aug 2026 23:29:46
If this is their exit strategy, they have made sure that we have the best and richest owners.

15 Aug 2026 00:27:37
Don't know about the best, defo the richest. I'm not convinced, it is an investment, so they will be looking for a return at some point. The fella who going to become vice chairman, previously of QPR, why didn't he invest in them and get Bezos onboard there?

15 Aug 2026 02:17:04
Scouse John L8 - The football landscape is significantly different to times when buying smaller clubs to try and build them was attractive, i.e. Man City even as recently as 2008.
1. The valuation gap between clubs like Liverpool and QPR is enormous, so only the very richest people can get involved with the biggest clubs now. A 200m profit from selling QPR holdings just isn't worth the time/work compared to potentially billions from Liverpool.


2. FFP rules mean developing a club from QPR's level into an investment that would interest someone like Bezos would require possibly decades of well-executed strategy followed by tangible success. Wealthy owners cannot simply buy success as they used to be able to - certainly not at the level City's owners did. Even clubs like Newcastle have found FFP to have utterly wrecked their plans of dominating (buying) football.

15 Aug 2026 06:40:31
I concur VV.

If I have read the tea leaves correctly, 1892 Holdings will be the new owners sooner than later. The good news is that it's a consortium and not a straight private equity setup, so there won't necessarily be a strict exit timeframe, which PE expects.

The Mittal and Facebook elements of the consortium are family offices, so they can plan as they wish.


The third, and dodgiest element, is K5, which is a PE fund with Bezos as its principal client and investor. They will need to exit within 7-10 years at a profit as per investor agreements.

If there's going to be any disruptive element, it'll come from Baum (K5) being on the board. Keep an eye and ear out on this name in future.

14 Aug 2026 19:27:46
A break from Barcola, but how long must we wait for City’s decision on the 115? It’s been an eternity already and still nothing.

14 Aug 2026 19:54:32
I think we need to rename 115 to CXV given how long this has been going on.

14 Aug 2026 19:58:57
Citeh's multitude of international lawyers 1, FA 0.

We are all going to get vetted old waiting for Citeh to get their suspended fine.

14 Aug 2026 20:01:47
Hughsie needs a break, he's had two 30 minute phone calls this week. Needs a kip, the poor lad.

14 Aug 2026 20:05:02
City's goal was always to drag it on as long as possible until a more pro-Qatari government was elected.

Have to remember this isn't just about cheating at football, they're also accused of corporate fraud, so cases with HMRC can drag for a long time and get delayed a lot, and while HMRC aren't involved now, in the event that they're found guilty it can be referred to HMRC to pursue for corporate fraud and tax evasion - so they need to be sure they've dotted all the t's and crossed the i's because the implications can be very serious.

14 Aug 2026 20:30:16
City will probably get sorted before the overpriced fella from PSG.

14 Aug 2026 20:49:37
As long as it takes for the league to think enough time has passed that nobody will really care about the corrupt slap on the wrist City will get.

14 Aug 2026 22:44:15
City haven't dragged out anything, the case was heard by a panel of barristers, independent of any party. Where the complete f*** up was, the panel weren't given a time frame for a decision, which is ludicrous. When the decision is made, and if it's guilty, then you'll see City's lawers drag it out. It'll be end of this decade before it's finished.

15 Aug 2026 03:08:34
City definitely have been dragging it out. One of the charges against them is failure to cooperate lol and it's likely that one will end up being found guilty.

14 Aug 2026 19:25:02
Hey Ed's and itks, sorry I have been scrolling down posts but could not find the answers. The site has been absolutely busy.

If we were to get barcola, are we still looking at right winger, or is Rio ngumoha considered a starter for this spot? I am hoping we get a right winger, preferably rayan or even mbaye. Is the right wing position dependent of finance of gakpo even thought he is predominantly left sided.

Thank you

{Ed001's Note - we will try to sign a right winger not sure who though

14 Aug 2026 22:51:18
Mbaye.

14 Aug 2026 23:49:38
And Mbaye not?

You hedging your bets there, 1jj?

15 Aug 2026 03:42:42
Now that we have a shed load of cash, can we buy the players back that we never replaced? I'd love to see Gini and Fabs back.

15 Aug 2026 07:57:54
Set your sights higher, WDW. I want Rushie, Barnes, Stevie and God.

14 Aug 2026 19:23:24
I am not sure what to make of the substantial investment in LFC. FSG in the main have been good owners. LFC are very well run Football Club. While not being reckless, I hope that the new revenue streams this investment will open maybe equates to one more signing per window?

14 Aug 2026 20:19:42
Ye should thank your lucky stars like I am, that he chose LFC, every billionaire has skeletons in the wardrobe these days. Amazon is worth nearly three trillion dollars, so he must know what he's doing, one would guess?

14 Aug 2026 20:22:57
I wouldn't expect massive changes in the medium term, but we will need a new sporting director and replacements for the front of shirt and sleeve sponsors as they expire soon. Wouldn't be surprised to see Amazon as front of shirt sponsor. That would bolster record revenues further.

14 Aug 2026 21:13:40
Agreed, 007. I don't know about the rest of the consortium, but Bezos, outside of his 'babies', has a track record of investing from a distance, not getting too involved and letting the experts run the show. Whatever people think of him personally, he is an excellent businessman.

14 Aug 2026 22:32:16
Let's be honest, folks, this will make pretty much zero difference to the day to day running of the club. It's merely FSG taking some of their profit from their investment over the past 15 years.

14 Aug 2026 23:17:55
I feel this is part of an exit strategy for FSG. Henry and Werner are both 76 now. I doubt they want a family member to inherit Liverpool and would rather cash in first. This new group are likely buyers, but both sides will have to see how it works out in the meantime, which is a good way of going about their business.

14 Aug 2026 23:24:40
I'm interested in potential infrastructure investments. The work on the stadium, the re-purchasing of Melwood for the women's teams and the growth of the AXA centre. All these things are taken into consideration when determining a club's adherence to PSR. More investment in the above has a positive impact when determining if we are within the three year rolling £ 105m loss.

14 Aug 2026 23:31:17
Give me a choice between Bezos or Mohammed Bin Salman, and Bezos wins out every time. There's no accusation of sportswashing here, self made man.

15 Aug 2026 03:50:28
I agree @Vik, he's at the decent(ish) end of the obscenely rich pool.

I saw somewhere that he recently invested £330m (think it was £ but might have been USD) in a British AI startup company, which is a good thing for British industry / workforce.

14 Aug 2026 18:39:12
I've not seen it posted on here at the time of writing, but the Bezos deal to buy shares is done.

14 Aug 2026 19:04:42
What part of the Fornax scale is it?

14 Aug 2026 19:05:11
What part of the Fornax scale is it?

14 Aug 2026 21:09:31
Fully baked Ron.

14 Aug 2026 17:27:25
Apparently, Jeff Bezos will not have a seat on the board....He's still waiting for the Amazon driver to deliver it...

14 Aug 2026 19:01:55
Probably left it in a safe place.

14 Aug 2026 19:08:26
Behind the bins.

14 Aug 2026 20:03:04
Good job it wasn't Evri or we'd have had to pick it up from West Derby.

14 Aug 2026 20:10:36
Left it at the neighbor's house, and you tell customer service that's not a picture of my house.

14 Aug 2026 20:12:13
The consortium paid £1.6bn for their stake in the club. Not long ago, Bezos filed to sell 15m of his remaining Amazon shares with a market value of £3.1bn. His part in the consortium, within the context of his wealth (apparently the 4th wealthiest person on the planet) doesn't warrant him needing to be on the board at Liverpool.



Staggering to think that FSG bought the club for £300m and now it's valued at £5bn. Receiving £1.6bn, having made an initial outlay of £300m, and still owning @65% of the club ..... they must have broken out the good malt and cigars yesterday.

14 Aug 2026 17:21:08
Now that the Bhattia consortium's 30% purchase has been confirmed, I'd suspect they'd like to be seen as hitting the ground running and a couple of the long rumoured signings to follow quickly.

14 Aug 2026 19:06:26
This is correct.

14 Aug 2026 19:22:09
Yeah but it doesn't work like that anymore. It's not Champ Manager 2001.

14 Aug 2026 19:27:52
They don't really have a say on the club finances nor FFP.

14 Aug 2026 21:17:36
At least until the sponsorships start rolling in, @PBN.

14 Aug 2026 21:27:35
Wdw, exactly what I'm thinking. The next 2 sponsorships will probably be huge, plus we already bring in more money than Villa or Newcastle, who are handicapped by PSR as they don't generate as much. Might be wrong on this.

14 Aug 2026 23:22:07
I think Bezos' interests are in broadcasting rights. Being an insider rather than an outsider helps.

14 Aug 2026 17:10:22
Apparently the sale of the minority stake is going through today in the US. About £1.3bn. Great work if you can get it, FSG have done amazing business there. It'll be interesting to see if any obvious changes come about as a result, I don't see that it will make much difference to the remaining transfer business.

14 Aug 2026 17:03:41
Hearing that we're getting Barcola on next day Prime delivery now!