Liverpool going on sale highlights football's financial fickleness

The storied club’s owners need a sale after more than a decade of ownership has delivered paltry returns.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp lifts the trophy with his team after winning the UEFA Champions League Final.

The mooted sale of Liverpool Football Club confirms an uncomfortable truth: No-one really makes any money owning a soccer club, they only profit from selling it.

Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC, which also owns Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins, is exploring a sale of the English team. Liverpool could fetch more than $5bn (€5bn), Bloomberg News reported, citing an analyst estimate. A deal of that size would represent an incredible return on the £300m (€344m) that FSG paid back in 2010. But without a sale, Liverpool would be a pretty poor investment.