There are umpteen FSG tribute acts in the football club ownership racket but none who do it quite like John Henry, Mike Gordon and Tom Werner at Liverpool.
Fenway Sports Group entered the football finance world with a self-sufficient business model, an eye for data and an almost religious devotion to value over vanity before it was trendy.
Now, the Premier League and EFL are littered with this more cerebral type of owner. It’s a long way removed from the bombast of previous Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
FSG run Liverpool sustainably. They have invested in physical and business infrastructure and helped grow the club’s commercial and matchday income expeditiously.
Chart showing Liverpool revenue over the years with projections for 2024-25 and 2025-26, with TBR Football logo
Liverpool revenue projections Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
And while their fans have sometimes been frustrated with their quiet approach in the transfer market, they don’t do transfers on tick like many of their rivals.
They spend what they can afford. That means when a squad cycle is coming to an end, they aren’t still paying for the previous iteration. It’s also why Liverpool can comfortably afford Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez this summer without handouts from FSG.
Club Transfer debt (£m)
Chelsea 498
Tottenham Hotspur 337
Manchester United 331
Arsenal 268
Manchester City 230
West Ham 191
Leeds United (2023) 190
Nottingham Forest 184
Newcastle United 160
Aston Villa 156
Wolves 135
Liverpool 128
Bournemouth 126
Brighton 104
Everton 74
Fulham 72
Crystal Palace 67
Brentford 61
Sheffield United 40
Luton Town 6
Premier League transfer debt 2023-24
Anyway, it’s the wage bill that really counts. In that department, only Manchester City pay more.
Or at least, that was the case in 2023-24. Liverpool didn’t even have Champions League football then, with all of the extra player bonus expenses that brings. They still paid a club-record £386m in wages.
This season, they will almost certainly break the £400m barrier for the first time, becoming one of only a handful of clubs in the history of football to do so. And still they will stay within the 60-65 per cent wages-to-turnover ratio range.
Chart showing that wages-to-turnover ratios of all 20 Premier League clubs, with TBR Football logo
Premier League wages-to-turnover ratios Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Naturally, after Arne Slot and company secured the Premier League title, there was a blizzard of love letters to the FSG business model in the press and on social media.
Quite right too. To win two league titles, a Champions League and a smattering of other cups while simultaneously taking on no external investment is a remarkable feat of alchemy. John Henry truly is the Mohamed Salah of capital efficiency and long-term value creation.
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
It is worth remembering, however, that this is the same Henry who enjoys a cosy relationship with the Glazer family and, in lockstep with his supposed arch nemeses at Manchester United, masterminded the European Super League.
Why? Not because they were intent on “improving the quality and intensity of existing European competitions”, as their initial statement read, but rather because of cold, hard capital appreciation.
When Super League died and Henry was forced into a cowering, hostage-style apology to camera, FSG had to rewrite their entire business plan overnight.
In fact, they came very close to selling the club altogether.
Eventually, FSG settled on realising a smaller portion of the value of their initial investment by selling a three per cent stake to Dynasty Equity, an American sports-focused private equity firm, for £127m.
Those wounds will take time to heal for Liverpool fans.
A diagram showing the ownership structure of Liverpool and FSG, encompassing John Henry, Mike Gordon, Tom Werner, Dynasty Equity, Arctos, RedBird Capital and other investors, with TBR Football logo
Liverpool ownership diagram Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Until the moment the Boston-headquartered owners cash out, there will probably always be at least an undercurrent of mistrust. That’s probably healthy, too.
But for FSG? As the Dynasty Equity deal showed, the value of their investment has continued to move relentlessly up and to the right since that attempt to rewire the very architecture of football in 2021.
£3-4bn-valued Liverpool have inspired new investment in FSG
FSG paid £300m for Liverpool back in 2010, as well as wiping out around £200m worth of debt.
When they bought the club, they were quite literally days from administration. Now, most analysts estimate their market value at somewhere between £3bn and £4bn.
The latest report from Football Benchmark, a respected advisory firm, follows the likes of Forbes, Sportico and Bloomberg in valuing Liverpool at around £3.5bn.
In the last 15 years, FSG’s wider portfolio – which includes Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins, and a big slice of golf’s PGA Tour – has exploded in value.
That has seen Liverpool greatly expand their capital base. Fenway have sold equity to, among others, RedBird Capital, SpringHill Entertainment and Arctos.
All of those investors have interests elsewhere in sport. RedBird, for example, own AC Milan. Arctos meanwhile have stakes in Paris Saint-Germain, Atalanta and the Harris-Blitzer investment group, whose co-owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer co-own Crystal Palace.
If you need an example of how the Premier League, media, geopolitics and private equity intersect…
RedBird, part-owners of Liverpool via FSG, beat Chelsea's Todd Boehly to buy The Telegraph from IMI, an Abu Dhabi-owned fund run by Man City's Sheikh Mansour.
Premier League² https://t.co/f2qi4ZTm0F
— Adam Williams (@Adam___Williams) May 29, 2025
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Private equity (PE) firms like Arctos have been hot on football in recent years, as you can see. Other sports have seen big private equity investment too, but not the most lucrative of them all: the NFL
However, the NFL voted to allow minority investment from PE firms last year and several huge stake sales have since been approved. Most recently, Liverpool investors-once-removed Arctos acquired a six per cent stake in the Los Angeles Chargers in a deal that valued the franchise at about £4.5bn.
Unlike Liverpool, the Chargers are consistently profitable. Arctos will be able to make money reliably and regularly. Any modest profit Liverpool make is reinvested.
Speaking exclusively to TBR Football, University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire says that the fact that Arctos consider their indirect investment at Anfield in the same league as the NFL speaks volumes about their faith in FSG.
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images
“I think this is a reflection of Arctos’ confidence in the quality of FSG’s senior management,” said the Price of Football author.
“They believe in FSG so they are happy to go along with their choice of investment. It’s a vote of confidence in FSG.
“Remember, as far as Liverpool are concerned, FSG are looking at a 1,000 per cent return. They bought it for £300m and it’s now worth far, far more than that.
Liverpool are a ‘moonshot’ investment
Where do Liverpool fit into FSG’s portfolio? In 15 years, they haven’t made a penny out of the club. Instead, theirs is a capital appreciation approach: buy low, sell high.
But to justify a £3.5bn valuation or more, they need to demonstrate the viability of the business model.
If even Liverpool, who have had arguably the best cost control of any elite club in world football since FSG’s takeover, aren’t yielding any money to their owners, who’s to say that their stock isn’t a bubble?
Chart showing the value growth of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City since 2010
Value growth of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United and Manchester City Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Bubbles burst, and that’s why Liverpool are what investors call a “moonshot”, Maguire explains.
“A traditional investment approach is that you have some investments in your portfolio that generate cash. Look at what Warren Buffett did – utilities, water companies, you’re always going to need them.
“You then have slightly more dynamic choices, then you have some moonshots. Elon Musk, despite the fact he is a divisive character, has had moonshots that have turned out to be fantastically successful. That is why he is where he is.
“Liverpool aren’t that first class of asset. They went 30 years without winning a title, after all. But the improvements and switch to a Moneyball approach where the focus is on value is something that will have influenced Arctos to build up their stake. That’s why they have confidence.”
Where is the value for FSG? Cost controls, PSR or technology?
For Liverpool to be worth £3.5bn, they – and, by extension, the rest of football’s financial ecosystem – need to find a way of ensuring that revenue consistently exceeds costs.
Profit and Sustainability Rules, or PSR, have not yet delivered consistent profits for any club, but some think that a stricter form of cost control could be the answer.
“They know that things are challenging because, unlike US franchise sport, there is a global market for talent in football. You don’t have that in the NFL and NBA,” says Maguire.
*“If they put too draconian a wage cap, players will just say ‘stuff this, I’m off to play in Saudi’.*“
Others think that the value of broadcast rights is being massively undercut by illegal streaming and piracy. With some innovation or a different approach to media, could that be the golden goose?
For Maguire, technology might be the next quantum leap in terms of revenue. Or, at least, that’s what Premier League club executives are saying in smoke-filled backrooms.
*“Honestly, I think they are convinced that the breakthrough is a way of getting product to consumers which is not the way we consume the game at present.*“
“I’ve sat in meetings with the guys building the VR headsets. I went in sceptical and I came out, not as a convert, but I was certainly far more impressed than my initial position.”
Protests against minority FSG shareholders RedBird at AC Milan
Elsewhere in the FSG universe, RedBird Capital – who, remember, own AC Milan – were told to ‘go home’ by fans in an elaborate display at San Siro ahead of last Saturday’s final-day Serie A clash against Monza.
Liverpool played Milan in the Champions League this season. They were knocked out of the competition by finalists Paris Saint-Germain, in whom FSG investors Arctos own a five per cent stake.
As well as a poor season on the pitch, Milan’s ultras are unhappy with the treatment of club legend Paolo Maldini by RedBird.
Maldini was removed from his directorial position at San Siro shortly after RedBird’s takeover in 2023.
The Italian giants won Serie A the season before the private equity firm’s arrival. They finished 8th in 2024-25.