Liverpool's Journey from Bankruptcy to Global Powerhouse
In the shadow of Yankee Stadium, Liverpool are trying to reset their story.
The club that once flirted with bankruptcy now tours the United States as a global powerhouse, claiming more than 26 million supporters in America alone. That number explains why the Reds have chosen the US as their pre-season base. The timing explains something else.
This is a summer Liverpool cannot afford to waste.
Money, power and a new partner
Billy Hogan, Liverpool and Fenway Sports Group’s CEO, sits in New York and calls the past 12 months “a super difficult year… for lots of different reasons.” On the pitch, the season unravelled. Off it, the club has been reshaping its entire structure.
Now comes the next move: fresh money.
Last week FSG confirmed that a consortium led by British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia is in talks over a strategic minority investment. The discussions are live. Inside the club, there is growing belief a deal will be struck.
“John Henry and FSG have always said that if there was an interest in an investment that would help the football club, then they would consider it,” Hogan tells BBC Sport. “That was said many years ago and that remains the case here.
“At this point, I wouldn’t say anything different to the statement that a consortium led, managed and represented by Amit Bhatia has come forward and expressed an interest in a minority investment.”
The message is clear: this is not an exit. Hogan, part of FSG since they bought Liverpool for £300m in 2010, stresses that the owners are not edging towards the door, nor following the Boston Red Sox out of the sporting spotlight. They see upside, not an endgame.
According to the Financial Times, any agreement with Bhatia’s group would value Liverpool at more than £4.5bn. From brink of administration to multi-billion valuation in 14 years. That is the scale of the transformation.
“There’s a huge opportunity still,” Hogan says. “This is the biggest and most popular sport in the world and we’re one of the biggest clubs in the biggest league in the biggest sport in the world. So that’s a great place for us to be. The Premier League has a tremendous amount of momentum behind it.
“We’ve definitely not peaked. We’re in a good place to continue to grow and that’s why everyone across both sides of the club, football and business and whether they kick a ball or not, is focused on driving the club forward and winning trophies.”
The numbers back him up. Liverpool were fifth in the Deloitte Football Money League, with Premier League-leading revenue of £702m. Hogan insists that, as ever under FSG, “all of that investment… goes back into the club. It’s about running the club sustainably.”
A record spend, a failed season, a manager gone
Sustainable or not, last season was brutal.
After a record £450m outlay in the previous summer, Liverpool fell flat. The expensive rebuild did not translate into results. The cost landed on the manager’s desk.
Arne Slot paid with his job at the end of the campaign.
The squad thinned as well. Senior figures Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté all walked away on free transfers, a painful drain of experience and quality for nothing in return.
Above them, the hierarchy shifted. Michael Edwards stepped down as FSG’s CEO of football when plans for a multi-club ownership model were shelved. Sporting director Richard Hughes is now being linked with a move to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. For a club that once prided itself on seamless succession, the churn has been jarring.
There is a question hanging over Liverpool: how stable is this really?
“Transition and change is inevitable in football,” Hogan says. “In our case, with a new coach coming in, there’s real excitement around Andoni’s mindset and philosophy that supporters will really enjoy.
“That will take time but in terms of transition, I would send a message that we are in a very healthy place as a football club – the leadership from ownership is in a very steady place and we’re looking forward to the next season and the season ahead.”
The model, he insists, has not changed.
Last season’s heavy spend was balanced, he points out, by significant player sales. This summer has gone the other way. Only one signing: Federico Chiesa for £12.5m. No frenzy, no scattergun spree.
“Over the course of FSG’s stewardship, the investment has always been focused on doing what’s best to put us in a place to win,” Hogan says. “Sometimes that means significant expense and other times it doesn’t like in the summer of 2024 when there was only one addition.
“It depends on where we are at the club and the improvements needed. Ultimately Mike Gordon, who is really our managing owner, will make those decisions.”
The targets remain blunt. On the pitch: win trophies. Off it: drive revenues, expand, build.
The forgotten team gets its turn
While the men’s side dominates the headlines, Liverpool’s women have been lagging behind the club’s global image.
They finished 11th in the WSL last season and have not lifted the top-flight title since 2014. For a club of Liverpool’s scale, that is a glaring gap.
Hogan does not dodge it.
“To be self-critical, that is probably an area that we maybe took our eye off the ball several years ago but we’ve changed that,” he says.
“We now have one of the best training centres at AXA Melwood, we are investing in the squad and we will approach the women’s team the same way we approach the men’s team – which is to run it sustainably. There’s tremendous growth in the women’s game and a huge opportunity going forward to really drive that.”
The language mirrors the men’s strategy: infrastructure, sustainability, long-term growth. This time, the women’s side is firmly in the plan rather than on the periphery.
From brink of bankruptcy to a rebuilt Anfield
To understand the scale of what FSG are trying to protect – and now enhance – you have to go back to 2010.
Liverpool were on the verge of administration when the Americans arrived. The club was a distressed asset with a glorious history and a bleak future.
It has not all been smooth. This year alone, Hogan wrote directly to fans to explain ticket price rises. Supporters pushed back hard. The club scaled down the planned increases for the next couple of seasons after protests. The tension between commercial growth and supporter culture remains a live fault line.
But the physical face of Liverpool has changed dramatically.
Under FSG, Anfield has been transformed. Two of the four stands have been redeveloped in the last decade, turning the old ground into a modern arena without stripping away its identity.
“Back when FSG acquired LFC, a number of similarities were drawn with Boston Red Sox and Liverpool and one of them was this idea of an iconic venue that truly sits in the community,” Hogan says.
“One of the things we’re focused on now is making improvements in the footprint around Anfield the neighbourhood whether that’s infrastructure or transport and getting people in on non-match days. We’re proud of how we’ve expanded while keeping the soul but also modernising it in the way that’s befitting of the football club.”
That, he says, is what gives him most satisfaction.
“What I would say I am most proud of is that the club is in such a positive and good financial position. If you go back to that point in 2010, the club was literally on the brink of bankruptcy. Now it has the right foundations underneath it.
“There’s improvements across the infrastructure, the ability to stay at Anfield for the long-term and the stuff that doesn’t always get headlines but are super important for the health of the club.”
The trophies matter. So do the near-misses.
“Ultimately, it’s about winning trophies and I wish we could win more but we’ve been fortunate to win a few,” Hogan says. “I think our supporters have had a great time and I often think about the fan parks at the Champions League finals – we lost a couple but just that joy and the memories and frankly the fun of it is what I look back from time to time.
“And it’s something that everyone associated with Liverpool should be proud of because it happens together and we all want this club to be the best in the world.”
A new era, under American lights
Now comes another reset. A new coach in Andoni Iraola. A squad stripped of some of its biggest names. A possible new investor ready to buy into the project. A women’s team finally being treated as a growth priority.
All of it launched not in Anfield’s tight streets, but in New York, where Liverpool face Wrexham at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday evening.
After a torrid year, this is where Liverpool choose to look forward – in a city built on reinvention, under lights that never really go out.
The question is simple: can the club that saved itself from the brink now turn financial strength and global reach back into what matters most – a team that wins?
