Liverpool's Vision for Growth and Sustainability
In the city of dreams, Liverpool are selling a vision.
On a humid New York evening, with Yankee Stadium looming and a pre-season meeting with Wrexham on the slate, Liverpool’s chief executive Billy Hogan talks not about tactics or team shape, but about survival, scale and what comes next for a club that has just staggered through what he calls “a super difficult year”.
The setting is no accident. Liverpool estimate they have more than 26 million supporters in the United States. America is not just a backdrop for pre-season content; it is a marketplace, a stage and, increasingly, a battleground.
A club courting billions
Behind the training sessions and shirt signings lies the real story of this tour: money, ownership and the next phase of Fenway Sports Group’s rule.
Last week, FSG confirmed they are in talks with a consortium led by British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia over a strategic minority investment. The discussions are active. Inside the club, there is a growing belief that 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: FSG are listening, but they are not leaving. Hogan, who has been with the group since they bought Liverpool for £300m in 2010, is at pains to stress that any new money is about scale, not exit.
The numbers are stark. According to the Financial Times, a deal would value Liverpool at more than £4.5bn. From the brink of administration to one of the most coveted sports assets on the planet in 14 years.
“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.”
On the balance sheet, the club is surging. Liverpool sat fifth in the Deloitte Football Money League and posted the highest revenue in the Premier League at £702m. Hogan stresses that, as ever under FSG, that money is recycled.
“All of that investment, as has always been the case since 2010, goes back into the club. It’s about running the club sustainably.”
A turbulent year on the pitch
Financially strong, yes. Football-wise, last season was bruising.
A record outlay of £450m the previous summer failed to deliver. Performances sagged, results turned, and by the end of the campaign Arne Slot had been sacked. The dressing room lost heavyweight figures too: Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all walked away on free transfers.
The churn did not stop at the touchline. Michael Edwards stepped down as FSG’s CEO of football after plans for a multi-club ownership model were shelved. Sporting director Richard Hughes is being linked with a move to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. For a club that has sold itself on stability, the foundations have been rattled.
Hogan does not flinch at the word “transition”.
“Transition and change is inevitable in football. In our case, with a new coach coming in, there’s real excitement around Andoni’s mindset and philosophy that supporters will really enjoy,” he says.
“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 recruitment strategy has shifted gear. After the previous summer’s heavy spend, this window has been almost eerily quiet: only one addition, Federico Chiesa for £12.5m.
For Hogan, that is not a retreat but a reflection of where the squad sits.
“It’s important to keep in mind that last season, a considerable amount was invested but also generated in terms of sales of players going out,” he says. “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.
“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 model, Hogan insists, remains intact: trophies as the on-pitch target, sustainable growth as the off-pitch mantra.
“On the pitch, our goal every season is to win trophies. Off the pitch, our priority is to continue driving overall revenues and expand and build the club.”
Women’s team back in focus
Not every area of the club has moved at the same pace.
Liverpool’s women finished 11th in the WSL last season and have not lifted the top-flight title since 2014. For a club that talks about global reach and holistic growth, that gap has become impossible to ignore.
“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,” Hogan admits.
“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 side: infrastructure, sustainability, opportunity. The difference is that, in the women’s game, Liverpool are chasing rather than setting the pace.
From bankruptcy threat to billion-pound powerhouse
To grasp the scale of the transformation Hogan describes, you have to go back to 2010.
Back then, Liverpool were on the verge of administration. Courtrooms, protests, the very real threat of bankruptcy. FSG stepped in with a £300m deal and a promise to stabilise and modernise.
It has not been a smooth ride. The Super League debacle, ticket price rows, questions over spending and ambition – all have scarred the relationship with parts of the fanbase. As recently as this year, Hogan wrote to supporters to explain ticket price increases, and the club scaled back the rises after protests.
Yet the physical evidence of change is impossible to miss. Anfield has been reshaped, with two of the four stands redeveloped in the past decade. The stadium is bigger, louder, more lucrative.
“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.”
The pride for Hogan is not in a single stand or a single signing. It is in the fact that Liverpool no longer live from crisis to crisis.
“Football doesn’t give you much time to sit back and reflect. 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, of course. FSG’s Liverpool have won the Premier League, the Champions League, domestic cups, the Club World Cup. Hogan, like any executive, wishes there were more.
“Ultimately, it’s about winning trophies and I wish we could win more but we’ve been fortunate to win a few.
“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.”
That is the tightrope Liverpool now walk. A club valued in the billions, still trading on the idea of togetherness. A global powerhouse, still insisting it is rooted in Anfield’s streets.
And so they come to New York, to Yankee Stadium, to a country where 26 million people claim to be Liverpool fans. A new coach in Andoni Iraola, a squad reshaped, ownership exploring fresh investment, and a fanbase demanding that the next phase delivers as much on the grass as it does on the balance sheet.
After a torrid year, this tour is not just about fitness and rhythm. It is a test of belief. Can Liverpool turn financial might and global reach back into silverware – or will this be remembered as the moment the project plateaued?
