What now for FSG, a frustrated Michael Edwards and Liverpool?
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“One of the biggest factors in my decision is the commitment to acquire and oversee an additional club, growing this area of their organisation,” Edwards said. “I believe that to remain competitive, investment and expansion of the current football portfolio is necessary.”
Edwards, who had been working as a consultant for Ludonautics, the sports advisory analytics business founded by former Liverpool director of research Ian Graham, was given a wider remit with responsibility for overseeing the club’s budget and strategy. Since stepping down as sporting director in 2022, he had rejected around a dozen job offers from clubs across Europe, including lucrative approaches from Premier League rivals Manchester United and Chelsea to run their football operations.
In an email FSG president Mike Gordon sent to club staff in March 2024, confirming that Edwards would take over the running of football operations from him, he wrote: “To remain competitive, we must identify every avenue available to us to gain an edge. To this end, Michael will use every tool at his disposal and has already identified the acquisition of another club as one channel that will help fortify our overall operation and drive our competitive ambitions.”
Two years on, and FSG has failed to embark on the multi-club ownership model it previously appeared committed to and those plans have now been shelved.
The Athletic has spoken to numerous sources familiar with the situation, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, to establish why a second football club hasn’t been purchased.
Edwards has kept his counsel. It’s a crucial period on the field for Liverpool and there is a desire internally to ensure there are no distractions as Arne Slot’s side attempts to salvage something from a turbulent season. Wednesday’s Champions League rout of Galatasaray, which set up a quarter-final tie with holders Paris Saint-Germain, provided hope on that front.
However, a number of sources close to Edwards have told The Athletic that the impasse regarding the multi-club plans has frustrated him. Edwards, technical director Julian Ward and director of football development Pedro Marques have travelled around Europe since the summer of 2024, assessing options and putting in all the groundwork, but it hasn’t come to fruition.
Extensive analysis was conducted on around 25 clubs with a strong focus on Spain, Portugal and France. However, no proposal got the green light from the FSG board, to whom Edwards reports.
There have been four occasions when insiders say discussions reached a point where it felt like a deal could have been done. Three of them have been well documented along the way: Bordeaux, Malaga and Getafe.
The Athletic can reveal that the fourth was Monaco, with FSG holding talks in early 2025 with another ownership group about potentially joining forces to buy a minority stake in the Ligue 1 team.
It didn’t happen due to a lack of clarity when they consulted UEFA over the governing body’s multi-club ownership rules amid concerns that Liverpool and Monaco wouldn’t have both been allowed to play in the Champions League.
The process of identifying a second club is effectively complete. All the analysis is there and could, in theory, be acted on by Boston-based executives in the future, but it looks increasingly unlikely that they will expand their football portfolio.
A source close to the ownership told The Athletic: “The project is simply dormant. Nothing is currently happening that would suggest FSG are moving forward with acquiring a second club.”
Multi-club ownership is controversial but with more than half of Premier League clubs part of such structures, Edwards has long since viewed it as crucial to ensure Liverpool can compete for young talent on a level playing field.
Since post-Brexit regulations came into force in 2021, English clubs aren’t able to sign players under the age of 18 from overseas. Owning a club in a country which is still a member of the European Union can help to circumvent those rules, as players can be based there until they reach adulthood.
There are also potential benefits in terms of developing Liverpool’s own homegrown youngsters through the use of the loan system, giving them greater control over both playing style and game time.
Edwards, Ward and Marques are based at FSG’s office in Altrincham, just over 30 miles east of Liverpool. The club’s Kirkby training complex is a 45-minute drive away. Edwards visits infrequently, giving sporting director Richard Hughes space to look after the club’s day-to-day operations.
When that FSG trio started assessing clubs across Europe in 2024, there were certain criteria which they decided had to be met.
It had to be a club in a league which gave them regulatory access to talent from both a European and global perspective. The potential to compete in European competition was also viewed as key, given both the experience that gives young players and the income it generates. Infrastructure, finances, and possible commercial opportunities were also assessed.
Location was another factor, considering the need to attract both players and staff, plus how straightforward it would be to improve and influence football operations given the existing ownership or board structure. Just like FSG’s approach to Liverpool, a second club would need to be run with a sustainable business model.
The first serious discussions came quickly, in July 2024, when a possible takeover of Bordeaux presented itself. They only had 10 days to do the financial due diligence with Edwards and Ward among the party who travelled to France.
It ticked a lot of boxes with FSG publicly confirming they were in “the early stages of dialogue and engagement”. Bordeaux were in financial trouble but the potential was clear given that it is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in France and their academy had produced players such as Jules Kounde and Aurelien Tchouameni.
However, FSG ultimately pulled the plug due to financial concerns and Bordeaux were subsequently demoted to the fourth tier of French football.
One sticking point was that their impressive stadium, built for Euro 2016, is owned by the local municipality. The club were in arrears regarding the rent and there were other debts, including payments owed to former staff.
Off the back of that experience, a template was developed, grading different elements of a potential acquisition to present to the FSG board. There were fact-finding visits to a number of Spanish clubs, including Levante, Espanyol and Valladolid. But some of the valuations were regarded as excessive, especially when it came to squad value. There was a big disparity with Liverpool’s own data.
Part of the process involved going to meet UEFA’s director of financial sustainability Andrea Traverso for guidance about how to avoid breaching rules prohibiting multi-club ownership in the same European competition.
Earlier this season, Crystal Palace were demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League because co-owner John Textor held shares in both Palace and Lyon, who had also qualified for the Europa League. Others, including Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, had placed shares in Nice and Olympiacos respectively in blind trusts to avoid breaking those rules.
FSG did not want to be in a position of having to relinquish ‘decisive influence’. They saw little value in putting all the work in and then backing off to let someone else run a second club. They wanted to be fully transparent about any involvement elsewhere.
As well as a full takeover, they also looked into minority stakes. In terms of Monaco, they were approached in late 2024 by a group who own another club in Europe to ask if FSG were interested in going into a partnership. It was widely known that Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who has held a two-thirds stake since 2011 through Monaco Sport Investment Limited, was exploring the possibility of selling up.
FSG conducted due diligence as they eyed a stake of around 30 per cent, but didn’t get any reassurances that UEFA would allow it if Liverpool and Monaco both ended up in the same European competition.
By April 2025, the focus had shifted to Spanish second-tier side Malaga. It was the kind of restoration programme that excited Edwards and Ward as they eyed the 51 per cent stake of majority shareholder Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani.
There was a lot to like about Malaga’s squad and the size of the club fitted what they were looking for in terms of one capable of competing in the Europa League or Conference League.
However, the pathway to acquisition was problematic because Malaga were in administration and under judicial control. There was also an ongoing legal dispute with Al Thani, who had been accused by Spanish prosecutors of alleged misappropriation of funds (the case was sent to trial last June).
In the summer of 2025, discussions took place with Getafe president Angel Torres over a staged takeover of the La Liga club. Torres, who had previously put off potential bidders with a valuation of around £160million, lowered his price tag closer to £100m, while publicly downplaying talk of selling the club he has owned since 2002.
Once again, FSG conducted financial and technical football due diligence, but ultimately decided not to push ahead with a deal, citing cost and the club’s limited revenue streams. There are strict limitations in Spain, with spending linked to a club’s income, and there were concerns that even if they invested heavily in the squad, registering those players could be difficult.
If they had pushed ahead with buying Getafe, then it’s likely that Marques, who has previous experience of working in a multi-club ownership with Abu Dhabi-owned City Football Group, would have been installed as sporting director.
Last December, there were reports in Spain that FSG was considering buying Sevilla, but that was never the case. There have been no serious talks since interest in Getafe ended late last year and the trail has gone cold.
Changes had been made at Liverpool in readiness for buying a second club. Matt Newberry, who was previously head of academy recruitment and director of loans and pathways, was promoted to the new role of head of global talent.
Every few weeks, Newberry meets up with Edwards and Ward to present them with the latest opportunities around the most gifted under-21 players they have scouted globally who have played less than 4,000 first-team minutes. It’s about keeping fingers on the pulse.
Newberry’s work in January led to Liverpool committing around £3.5m on two highly rated young centre-backs: Senegal’s Mor Talla Ndiaye and Austria’s Ifeanyi Ndukwe, who both impressed at November’s Under-17 World Cup in Qatar.
Those are the kind of players Liverpool would ideally park at a second club overseas to help them develop and ultimately reach a point where they are ready for the Premier League.
The race to sign young talent is increasingly aggressive across Europe, with transfer fees for the best under-21 players rising significantly in recent years. Being able to bring them on board before they turn 18 is cost-effective. Having no second club limits opportunities.
In terms of why buying a second club hasn’t happened, sources point to the fact that FSG are conservative by nature. They were never going to rush into a decision and such a high level of due diligence slowed down the process. The prospect of potentially running into trouble if two clubs they owned ended up in the same European competition was another concern.
Not all the work put in has gone to waste.
For example, Ward’s role as technical director also involves oversight of the academy and all the club visits across Europe have helped to shape ambitious plans for the £20m redevelopment of the Kirkby academy — the biggest overhaul of their young development centre since 1998.
What it means for Edwards going forward is uncertain.
His first priority when he became FSG CEO of football two years ago was to create a new football leadership structure at Liverpool post-Jurgen Klopp. With Hughes installed as sporting director and Slot appointed as head coach, the transition was seamless as Liverpool won a record-equalling 20th top-flight league title
Last summer, Edwards was heavily involved in Liverpool embarking on the biggest spending spree in their history with close to £450m invested in the squad. However, this season has been dogged by issues, and the champions currently sit fifth in the Premier League.
Edwards, Hughes and Slot will all have one year remaining on their contracts this summer. Hughes’ future has been the subject of scrutiny this week, with Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal keen to make him their sporting director.
Slot has found himself under growing pressure with just four wins in 12 league games since the turn of the year, leaving Liverpool in a fight for Champions League qualification.
Two years ago, Edwards said he was returning with “renewed vigour and energy” after being tempted back by FSG’s commitment to the multi-club model. Now that it’s effectively off the table, it will be intriguing to see whether he stays on board for the long term.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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