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](https://www.thetimes.com/topic/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.