FSG receive £300m boost as Liverpool strengthen position over Man City

Liverpool have seen a £330m increase in the club’s valuation over the past 12 months.

American sports business website Sportico this week published its annual ranking of the world’s biggest soccer teams, placing the Reds fourth on the global list, behind Barcelona in third, Real Madrid in second and Manchester United in first place.

Liverpool’s valuation was pegged at $5.11bn (£4.1bn), up 8.8% year-on-year. That sum was, however, around £860m less than what Manchester United were thought to be, despite the lack of competitive success the Old Trafford side have seen over the past decade.

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Also in the top 10 of the Premier League list was sixth-placed Manchester City, who, despite a treble win last year and the highest revenue of any of the 50 teams on the list, had a rating of $4.75 billion (£3.8 billion). . Arsenal (£3.13bn), Tottenham Hotspur (£2.79bn) and Chelsea (£2.78bn) came in eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

Sportico’s methodology was based on several factors, which included: historical sales, market (size, saturation and interest of potential owners), brand strength, on-field performance (historical and recent), unit lease terms, debt burden, and liabilities additions, as well as the future economy of the team and the league.

Outside the top 10 comes a significant drop of £1.36bn for Juventus, demonstrating the wealth gap that exists between the top 10 clubs and the rest.

The US MLS had 20 teams in the top 50, 11 more than the Premier League. The reason for this was the nature of the sports ecosystem in North America, which, despite reduced revenues from Premier League teams, has no problems with relegation or promotion, greater cost control through things like the salary cap, and encourages greater collaboration between ownership groups.

Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group bought the Reds in October 2010 for around £300m. Using this valuation compared to the current valuation placed on the club using Sportico’s methodology, FSG has seen a £3.8bn increase in the value of its original investment, a 1,266% increase over almost 14 years of ownership.

Allowing for inflation, the current purchase price would be around £446 million, demonstrating the huge increase in the value of the Premier League product globally, driven significantly by the booming media rights market, both domestically , as well as international.