Liverpool’s owners are said to be in talks with a number of consortiums in the Middle East regarding a potential takeover of the club.
The Reds’ owners, Fenway Sports Group, announced their willingness to sell the club earlier this month following 12 hugely successful years in charge at Anfield that saw the club win the Champions League and end their 30-year title drought.
Aside from their success on the pitch, the Americans have overseen the club’s move to a state-of-the-art training facility in Kirkby as well as have started the multimillion redevelopment of Anfield, with the expansion of the Anfield Road end now well underway following the extension of the Main Stand.
However, FSG have now decided that the time is right to listen to offers for the club, and the Mail are reporting that they are in talks with investors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Much of the newspaper headlines in recent weeks have been dominated by the Glazer’s decision to put rivals Manchester United up for sale and who is reportedly interested in buying the Old Trafford outfit, though it has, however, been a little quiet on stories about potential interest in the Merseyside club.
However, the Mail says that consortiums from the two Middle East nations have ‘held discussions’ with FSG Group director Mike Gordon and ‘expressed their interest in buying the club’.
It goes on to say that while the companies involved have ‘close links’ with their countries ruling families, they are private companies as opposed to being state-owned.
The report comes in a week when Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal – Saudi Arabia’s Sports Minister – said that his country would ‘support’ any private sector companies that were interested in buying Liverpool or United.
“From the private sector, I can’t speak on their behalf, but there is a lot of interest and appetite and there’s a lot of passion about football,” he said.
“We will definitely support it if any [Saudi] private sector comes in, because we know that’s going to reflect positively on sports within the kingdom.”
The report in the Mail suggests £3billion to be the figure for a takeover of Liverpool, a huge profit on the £300 million that FSG to buy the club from Hicks and Gillett back in 2010.
