Speaking to Off The Ball, The Athletic’s Matt Slater has been discussing the potential takeover of Liverpool and potential interested parties.
With a club as big as Liverpool up for sale, many have immediately looked towards some of the wealthiest nations on the planet and their wealth funds as potential buyers.
It’s become a huge trend in recent years with Qatar Sports Investments purchasing PSG, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund buying Newcastle and the Abu Dhabi United Group owning Manchester City.
According to Slater, a potential purchase of Liverpool from Bahrain has been mooted as the oil-rich middle eastern nation look to get involved in this recent trend.
Bahrain mooted
Slater spoke about potential sovereign wealth funds that could be Liverpool.
“Sovereign wealth funds. Bahrain has been mooted. Perhaps another one in the UAE, Dubai had a look at Liverpool a few years ago. The thing about Liverpool is the fanbase and how they would take that sort of ownership. Particularly as they have become vocal against Newcastle and Manchester City, so that would require a handbrake turn from the whole club culturally. It doesn’t seem a great fit to me,” Slater said.
Rich
Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund is certainly rich enough to buy Liverpool.
According to SWFI, the fund is worth over $18bn (£16bn) and that trumps FSG’s reported net worth of around $10bn.
Of course, there is the question of ethics around this type of deal and whether or not Liverpool would want to sell their soul and become just another oil club, but unfortunately, if you want to compete in the world of football these days, you need that level of investment.
Bahrain seem to hold an interest, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising if that sort of deal got done.
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