Amid the fanfare of Michael Edwards’ appointment as Fenway Sports Group’s (FSG) chief executive of football on Tuesday was an acceptance that Liverpool need to change. A new era without Jurgen Klopp will now be crafted by Edwards, Liverpool’s former sporting director, and included in the plans are the ambitions to invest in a partner club.
The multi-club ownership model is coming to Anfield, with
Edwards believing Liverpool have little choice but to expand if they are to
“remain competitive” in the Premier League and beyond.
It is a clear shift in strategy for Liverpool, a club that
has so far gone it alone in contrast to many of their big rivals. Well over half of the 20 English top-flight clubs
now have relationships with at least one other European club and the pattern
has been extended in the past 12 months.
It has long been mooted that FSG was open to buying
another football club to run alongside Liverpool. There were links to as
many as four Brazilian clubs – Cruzeiro, Botafogo, Athletico Paranaense and
Internacional – but Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s CEO, suggested last summer that it
had ceased to be a priority.
There is a pattern to the clubs targeted by those in the
Premier League seeking expansion: big enough to compete in the top division of
a domestic competition without costing the earth to buy.
Liverpool are unlikely to break that trend and will seek a
club willing to buy into their long-term vision. The South American market,
particularly Brazil, has already been assessed by FSG, but the preference for
this first step will likely be a European club.
After Brexit
The United Kingdom’s vote to withdraw from the European
Union in 2016 has led to complications in recruitment, with Brexit making it
more difficult for overseas players to obtain a work permit to join English
clubs.
Owning a European club helps circumvent those rules,
presenting the chance for a player to build up his qualification criteria in
another league. It could also give a temporary home to promising under-18s from
the continent, who are no longer eligible to sign for English clubs. The push
to form partnerships with European clubs in the past five years has not been a
coincidence.
t is not a term any executive likes to use — not when it is
so disparaging to those lower down a multi-club pyramid — but the chance to use
others as ‘feeder clubs’ has an increasing appeal to those in the Premier
League.
As well as the edge it can offer in the recruitment of
youngsters, it also gives a chance to develop Liverpool’s own talent. There is
greater control over a youngster’s progression when sent to a partner club,
with the multi-club model typically asking all its teams to play in the same
style.
Youngsters can be loaned out knowing they will get
opportunities and minutes at a competitive level, something that cannot always
be taken for granted. That might not lead to that player enjoying a career with
the biggest club in the stable, but it will likely see them build up a greater
residual value. In these times of tightened profit and sustainability rules
(PSR), these are the gains that can make a difference.
Downsides
It is not always sweetness and light, as Chelsea have
discovered owning French club Strasbourg this season. They are in danger of
relegation from Ligue 1, with supporters growing restless about their role in
the bigger picture.
There have also been protests at Lyon against John Textor’s
Eagle Football Group, as well as at Lorient, where Bournemouth owner
Bill Foley’s Black Knight Football Entertainment has a stake. 777 Partners,
currently attempting to complete a protracted takeover of Liverpool’s city
neighbours Everton, has had issues with clubs in its stable.
Others have also run into problems when two clubs from the
same group have ended up in European competitions together.
The City model
Replicating Manchester City’s model, however, would
take enormous resources and time. City
have been at this for over a decade, planting roots in North America, South
America, Australia, Asia and Europe. Their influence spreads far and wide under
the CFC umbrella.
City’s approach is being imitated, but no one has shown a
willingness to replicate its breadth and FSG, an organisation conscious of its
financial limits, is not expected to try.
It has to be said that some fans don’t like the multi club
model seeing it as part of football losiing its soul. However, the genie has long been out of the
bottle: football is a global business.
Indeed, it continues to globalise while other sectors of the economy
draw back.
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