Last week, it was confirmed by FSG and the directors of Bordeaux that talks about the US group taking over and adding the French soccer side to its portfolio had broken down .
But FSG is still exploring a move towards a multi-club model . The Liverpool owner is keen to follow a recent trend within the sport of acquiring a second team. In the case of Red Bull, the City Football Group and several others, there are multiple teams all owned by the same parent company.
But why is FSG so keen to get involved ? Liverpool's owner has brought back Michael Edwards as CEO of football and his role, alongside Julian Ward , will involve identifying and then running suitable options.
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"The benefits are brand synergy and alignment — what you can learn from other clubs in the network, and the opportunities around player development and talent ID," football finance expert Dr Dan Plumley tells Liverpool.com on behalf of Instant Casinos .
"It's the sharing of resources and cost-efficiency savings and the brand composition — both for FSG and Liverpool. It is pretty clear within that Liverpool is the flagship still — and the brand of Liverpool FC is one that lots of clubs would crave.
"There are a lot of positives there around what this could look like. There has been a lot of conjecture around multi-club ownership but it is the trend at the minute. It is one that is here to stay and if you can get it right — and you look at what FSG are trying to do, not just in football, but have a multi-club ownership across different sports — it becomes a really attractive proposition. If done well, it can have some real potential for Liverpool and the other clubs in the network as well."
When Edwards returned to work with FSG, the former Liverpool sporting director explained that he felt multi-club ownership was the way forward. The Liverpool owners do not want to be left behind or miss out on a potential advantage that their rivals could benefit from.
"For FSG, it is a big brand proposition," Plumley says. "We know they have a track record and they look at financially sustainable clubs and a return on investment in the long run. The brand of FSG grows as a result of owning these brilliant football clubs and other sporting properties.
"For Liverpool, it can be financial if you can look to tie in some sponsorship and commercial deals that have leverage across the group, whether that is within the football network or into some of the other networks that FSG have got. You can look to have cost savings in that way as well, so you can improve your efficiency by spreading people across the network.
"Particularly in that commercial and sponsorship world, we know that clubs are looking to grow that and further it because the matchday revenue has a finite capacity on it and the broadcast deal, clubs are not in direct control over it. The commercial and sponsorship revenue stream becomes really important and this is a way for brand proposition to leverage that.
"Some of that is intangible and difficult to put a number on but if you look at the amount of fans that Liverpool have around the world, you can see why FSG are using Liverpool as the flagship but driving growth elsewhere too."
In terms of a potential location, as the mooted deal for Bordeaux showed , there is an obvious place to start. "European football is still the dominant region," Plumley says.
"It houses some of the biggest clubs in the world, so you're always going to look to position yourself in that network. Outside of that, we have seen FSG and others do this — they will be looking in Asia, America, South America, India.
"There are lots of areas to go at and if you are looking at what a successful multi-club model look like in the future, with the City Football Group being the blueprint for this, you want your network all around the world. It will be a lot about area and geographic reach but within that, the subcontext is getting the right club in that market as well.
"There is always a risk that ownership groups are not the flavor of the month with fan groups and things like that, but you have to negate that by the owners knowing what the fans want. Communication is important.
"I do get the sense that the FSG one will look very different to Chelsea and others, not just because of how FSG position themselves across football, but also across other sports. It's easy to look at multi-club models and say if everyone is doing it, they are doing it for the same objectives. But they are not. There are very different versions and you can file the FSG one as being very strategic and very clear in the direction of travel.
"If you have everybody aligning with the same objectives, you negate some of those risks of picking the wrong club or it going wrong. Nothing is ever risk-free but having that structure from the top down, that is the ultimate way to completely limit risk as much as possible."
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