Fenway Sports Group will use Liverpool’s £350m credit facility rather than injecting more money into the club should they fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League, says Kieran Maguire.
Liverpool lost 1-0 to Galatasaray in the Champions League round-of-16 first leg last night, with the return leg in a week’s time a high-stakes affair both on and off the pitch.
The Reds have benefited to the tune of around £90m from UEFA’s central £4bn pot this season. And that’s before FSG even account for the five extra matchdays at Anfield, which will likely be worth at least £25m.
John Henry and his Fenway colleagues lobbied for the new Champions League format, which some finance experts have called a Super League by stealth.
Who was Liverpool’s worst player vs Galatasaray? 😬
Ibrahima Konate during Galatasaray AS v Liverpool FC - UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Round of 16 First Leg. Mohamed Salah pictured during Galatasaray v Liverpool - UEFA Champions League.
Credit: Liverpool FC/Cem Hasret Tekkesinoglu/Anadolu/Getty Images
As well as cashing in from more matches, Liverpool also benefit from the distribution system, which takes into account their five and 10-year coefficients as well the value of the TV deal in the UK. That means they earned around £50m in revenue before Arne Slot’s side even kicked a ball in Europe this season.
The money on offer in the Europa or Conference League is much, much more modest. And the costs associated with those competitions – player appearance fees, administrative expenses, stadium logistics and utilities and so on – mean that some clubs don’t even break even.
The Champions League also offers a ticket for the expanded Club World Cup, which could be worth up to £100m in its next iteration if FIFA can repeat their commercial offering from the 2025 edition.
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So, with Liverpool currently outside the last of the Premier League’s five Champions League spots on goal difference ahead of hosting Tottenham on Sunday, could the absence of elite European football combined with the legacy costs of their huge summer transfer window mean they need external investment from the owners?
A UEFA Champions League logo depicting Liverpool's six European Cup wins is seen during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Round of 16 Second Leg match between Liverpool FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on March 11, 2025 in Liverpool, England.
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
“Football player salaries are very closely linked with success on the pitch,” Maguire, who is a football finance lecturer at University of Liverpool, told Rousing The Kop.
“A standard contract might include a 25 per cent bonus if you qualify for the Champions League. So the wage bill could decrease if they don’t finish in the top four or five. That said, the wage bill went up in 2023-24 despite having no Champions League football.”
Per the most recent set of accounts, Liverpool’s wage bill was a club-record £427m in 2024-25. The £41m increase on the previous season was likely related to player bonuses as the Reds won their second title under FSG. But the baseline figure will probably rise again this season after a huge outlay in the summer.
Mario Lemina (L) of Galatasaray celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 play-off first leg match between Galatasaray and Liverpool at RAMS Park in Istanbul, Turkiye, on March 10, 2026.
Photo by Elif Ozturk/Anadolu via Getty Images
With a further £186m in other operating expenses and costs on top of that, Liverpool’s negative cash outflow for the season was £24m. In layman’s terms, they spent more than they earned.
“In terms of needing short-term capital, the first route FSG would take if they didn’t qualify for the Champions League would be to use their overdraft facility.
The credit facility is negotiable and they are held in high esteem because the owners can underwrite it. At the year end, the club had a revolving credit facility of £350m, of which £69m had been drawn down.
“After that, they would rather go to FSG than use third-party lenders because the latter option increases your interest costs. Interest costs are a non-issue from a PSR perspective, but FSG don’t want to pay it unless they have to. The net transfer spend was £229m, and that comes directly from the accounts, so that will have an impact.”
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