The British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia leading leading the deal to buy a third of Liverpool does not possess the profile of his fellow syndicate members Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook. He is the one, however, with a background in English football.
He was involved with the fan advisory board, supporters’
groups and was chairman of QPR in the Community Trust. It was through those
connections that he is said to have developed an understanding of what football
clubs mean to people, something that will soon be put to the test again.
The announcement last month that he was transferring his
shareholding in QPR, a clear sign that the discussions to buy into Liverpool were
progressing, produced something of a rarity in modern football. There were a
slew of positive messages about Bhatia on social media rather than simply
opprobrium.
This was despite Bhatia’s promotion to QPR chairman in
August 2018 failing to bring on-field success — amid seven managerial changes,
including the short-lived tenures of two former Liverpool academy coaches in
Michael Beale and Neil Critchley — up to the present day.
“He has a big grounding in football and in English
football,” one source told The Times. “And how English football fans see
their clubs and what they want from them.”
That is going to be crucial in dealing with Liverpool fans
who may be sceptical about the motives of exactly why a ludicrously wealthy
consortium wants a large slice of a sporting institution.
One of Liverpool’s strengths is that they continue to be
held to account by their fans, with structured engagement written directly into
the club’s Articles of Association after the collapse of the European Super
League plot in 2021.
Even so, plans to increase general admission prices across
three consecutive seasons prompted protests inside the ground organised by
Spirit of Shankly (SOS). Soon after the plan, which would have raised an
additional £1.5million-£2million a season, was scrapped.
In an attempt to understand a significant moment in
Liverpool’s history, SOS has sought greater clarity on what the impact will be
of Bhatia’s consortium coming on board. What will the purchasers get in return,
for example, and is it part of a planned wider sale?
A return for the investors will seemingly come from
growing Liverpool more
as a business, as the present owner has over the past 16 years, rather than in
the short-term.
Given the Premier League and Uefa’s financial
regulations on how spending is linked to turnover, the depth of the
consortium’s financial might is not as important as its ability to open up new
commercial opportunities in the dotcom era. That is where the growth lies and
an increase in annual revenue, which stands at £703million, will allow more to
be spent on the most important thing in all this: the team.
Apple, for example, has collaborated with Real Madrid, with
the club’s president, Florentino Pérez, describing Real’s “Infinite Bernabéu”
virtual reality project as akin to “opening the stadium doors to the entire
planet”. It is not difficult to envisage Amazon exploring similar opportunities
in time.
Bhatia, 46, will be visible at Anfield should the deal go
through, as seems likely.
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