Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nehayan, a cousin of the Manchester City football clubs owner made a record bid in order to purchase the famous English club. However, the club owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have refused the bid stating that Liverpool is not up for sale.
The club is currently valued at £1.42bn. The sheikh bid £2bn which is a world record for any premier league club. FSG, then known as the New England Sports Ventures bought Liverpool for £300m in 2010.
The current record for the most expensive football club takeover remains that of Malcolm Glazer’s £790m purchase of Premier League rivals Manchester United in 2005.
A Liverpool source stated that, the major shareholders of Liverpool, John Henry and Mike Gordon isn’t interested in selling the club. Although they might be interested in taking on a minority investor. But it’s solely for furthering the clubs commercial interest and growth in the emerging markets.
It was reported that the sheikh, cousin of the City owner Sheikh Mansoor was interested in buying the premier league side from as early as 2017. However, the sheikh didn’t approach the clubs board directly. Instead the bid was dealt by a London based financial services company.
It was also stated that, the managing director of the Bin Zayed Group, Midhat Kidwai had a meeting with the Liverpool chairman Tom Werner in New York, United States. But the club asserted that the meeting was totally coincidental and not for business purposes.
According to business services group KPMG, Liverpool is valued at 5th among English clubs after Manchester United(£2.93bn), Manchester City(£1.94bn), Arsenal( £1.89bn) and Chelsea(£1.58bn). Although the sheikh’s bid seems to be a profitable one for the Liverpool board, it’s unlikely that the club will respond positively.
However, after spending the most cash in the summer transfer window, the club might find this new offer hard to turn down. Let us see what happens with the deal, but it’s sure that an Arab owner like Sheikh Khaled will bring new prospects to the club just like Sheikh Mansoor did to Man City.
