Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) are reported to be in discussions with Getafe president Ángel Torres over what would be a “staged takeover” of the Spanish club.
FSG’s multi-club ambition has been clear since Michael Edwards, formerly Liverpool’s fabled sporting director, came back last summer to become the parent company’s chief executive of football.
When Edwards was appointed in his current role, FSG president Mike Gordon said in an email to staff that acquiring another football club had been “already identified” by the returning executive as a way to help “fortify our overall operation and drive our competitive ambitions”.
Edwards himself said when his new role was announced that the “commitment to acquire and oversee an additional club” from FSG was among the “biggest factors” in his decision to accept.
After prior interest in Bordeaux and Málaga didn’t yield anything more substantial, The Athletic reports that Getafe is “considered to be the best option” due to FSG building a good relationship with Torres. The 73-year-old businessman has publicly denied being ready to sell the club, but that isn’t thought to be the case behind the scenes.
An overall price of £100 million ($133.6 million) could be enough to prompt the takeover.
Getafe, based on the outskirts of Madrid, have built a reputation as part of the furniture in La Liga since a first ever promotion into Spain’s top flight in 2004—two years after Torres bought the club. They have spent only one season since then outside La Liga and have enjoyed seven top-half finishes.
Multi-club projects within football have become increasingly common in recent years, with more Premier League teams partnered with sister clubs through their respective parent companies.
Manchester City are the flagship club in the global City Football Group, a stable of 17 CFG-owned teams across men’s and women’s football, as well as four affiliated partners, covering four continents. Chelsea owners BlueCo also control Ligue 1’s Strasbourg, while Manchester United share some common ground with OGC Nice and Lausanne-Sport through minority owner INEOS.
It was John Textor’s stakes in both Lyon and Crystal Palace that saw the latter demoted to next season’s Conference League, due to a perceived breach of UEFA rules regarding clubs with the same owner competing in the same European competition. The American businessman has since sold his shares in Palace and the club is fighting a legal battle to be reinstated to the Europa League.
