The US owners of Liverpool FC aren’t trying to sell the team but are holding talks with potential investors about another kind of transaction, the Boston Sports Journal reported late Sunday.
“Are we selling LFC? No. Are [we] talking with investors about LFC? Yes,” John Henry, principal owner of Fenway Sports Group, told the publication in an interview. “Will something happen there? I believe so, but it won’t be a sale. Have we sold anything in the past 20-plus years?”
The comments quell speculation that the team was heading for a sale that could fetch more than $5 billion as investors from around the world vie to buy clubs in the English Premier League. Fenway Sports Group bought Liverpool for about £300 million pounds ($361 million today) in 2010 in a forced sale by US businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
Liverpool is one of the biggest teams in global football and, along with northwest rivals Manchester United FC, one of the most successful in the world’s richest football league. The Manchester club is a major prize itself, drawing bids from the Qatari royal family and Britain’s richest man.
Bloomberg News and The Athletic reported in November that Fenway Sports Group was considering a sale of Liverpool. The company also owns the Boston Red Sox.
