Liverpool chairman Tom Werner spoke to the Times about the potential for growth
Jennifer Ashton, Tom Werner, Chairman of Liverpool, and John Henry, Principle Owner of Liverpool, Linda Pizzuti Henry, Michael Gordon, President of Fenway Sports Group, and manager Arne Slot
Jennifer Ashton, Tom Werner, Chairman of Liverpool, and John Henry, Principle Owner of Liverpool, Linda Pizzuti Henry, Michael Gordon, President of Fenway Sports Group, and manager Arne Slot
(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images/Getty Images For The Premier League)
Later this year it will be three years since Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group were looking at a Reds exit. After flirting with the idea it was a quick pivot to a partial sale.
Erroneous links to Qatari royals and sovereign wealth funds saw the Twitter rumour mill go into overdrive and the story took on a mind of its own. In reality, no sooner had FSG looked to price up just what Liverpool might be worth, they had decided that they weren’t going to part company with them.
Why would they? FSG acquired the Reds for £300m back in October 2010, the second team purchase for the ownership group that bought the Boston Red Sox MLB team in 2002.
The incline in terms of the club’s value has been enormous, with the investment into improving the club on and off the field, the hiring of the right people at the right time, and the benefit of the 2010s boom in broadcast rights for the Premier League, turning a £300m investment into a $5.4bn (£4.2bn per Forbes, 2025) global behemoth. The S&P 500 doesn't offer those kinds of percentage returns, that’s for sure.
More teams and sporting assets have been acquired by FSG, but Liverpool has become the most valuable, now worth around £700m more than the Red Sox according to Forbes’ most recent list.
FSG have no interest in selling Liverpool. John W. Henry has been clear on that in the past, including in an exclusive chat with the ECHO back in 2023, and whatever avenues they were looking at in late 2022 have now been closed. This remains a long-term play, one that they will exit at some stage, but the way things are playing out on Merseyside, and with the economics of global football and sports fandom, it won’t be soon.
Speaking to the Times this week, Liverpool chairman Tom Werner gave a hint on just why the upside is there for the FSG ownership group to stay in situ for some time to come, and why cashing out any time soon would leave a lot on the table.
“Having Premier League games on US television on Saturday and Sunday mornings is wonderful,” said Werner. “It’s a bit like breakfast at Wimbledon. And the 4.30pm game on a Sunday is especially attractive. It’s 11.30am here on the East Coast and people head to bars and make a day of it.
“Over the next ten years I think the Premier League is going to be huge in the US. The sport is so good that people will continue to gravitate towards it. It helps that more and more kids are playing soccer. It helps that so many girls are playing.
“Many Americans still don’t appreciate the global power of football. But we think there could now be as many as a billion people around the world who follow Liverpool. There is a special connection with the fans. You feel it at the games at Anfield, when they start to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone. It’s deep and emotional.”
We are in a moment in time in football, and sports more broadly, where investors are looking for an opportunity that has a narrative, that they can latch onto to sell the product to a wider audience.
The impact of the ownership of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham, tapping into a storyline and connecting with a global audience via their Disney+ documentary ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ has provided a blue print that so many wish to follow, but that so few have the opportunity to align with. Liverpool has that opportunity in spadeloads thanks to the power of the club’s brand and the Premier League’s pull.
“I see myself as a storyteller and I understand the power of a good story; that’s the lens I look through,” Werner said. “And the storylines in live sport, and in particular in the Premier League, are so compelling. It’s why live sport is such a big part of our culture. It’s unique in what it offers.
“The reason that the Premier League is so successful is because it’s a display of the very best players in the world, with storylines that are skilfully delivered by networks like NBC. They’ve done a great job with their coverage here.
“The passion fans have towards soccer in the United States is really hard to articulate. But it’s quite powerful and it’s now on this trajectory that is only positive, especially with the World Cup coming in 2026. And what’s happening this summer with the Club World Cup — maybe not everyone is watching at the moment, but it’s still seeding interest.
“That said, I think that the Premier League is far and away the most compelling product in football. And Comcast [owners of NBC] says their interest is the Premier League, rather than the sport more broadly.
“Everybody comes to them and says, ‘Hey, listen, are you interested in televising the Club World Cup, or the World Cup?’ And they say, ‘No, we’re interested in the Premier League.’”
For FSG, they have already seen plenty to suggest the club will continue to accrete value in the coming years, but they also know that being successful is core to driving audience and reach. The transfer market business so far points to that fact.