Liverpool’s proprietor Fenway Sports activities Group (FSG) is in talks over shopping for French membership Bordeaux.
FSG is in “the early levels of dialogue and engagement”, the group confirmed in a press release on Tuesday. Bordeaux additionally confirmed talks in a press release of their very own.
There will likely be a radical due diligence course of to evaluate the feasibility of the deal and guarantee each events are match for one another.
There’s recognition that Bordeaux signify choice for FSG however it’s acknowledged that there are many points that would forestall any deal from coming to fruition.
Any workforce bought by FSG could be a standalone entity, having no direct connection to Liverpool, with a want throughout the possession for any membership they purchase to take care of its independence and id.
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Whereas confirming the talks with FSG, Bordeaux introduced that it’s interesting a choice from the Path Nationale du Controle de Gestion (DNCG, the physique liable for overseeing the funds of French soccer golf equipment) to demote it from the French second tier to the third.
Bordeaux say they’re interesting the choice with a view to present the required ensures for financing for the upcoming 2024-25 marketing campaign. The membership add that the plan to promote a majority stake to FSG was offered to the DNCG on Tuesday morning with negotiations ongoing.
Bordeaux had been positioned into administration in 2021 when their American proprietor King Road said it might not assist the membership financially, and so they had been purchased by Luxembourgish-Spanish businessman Lopez in June of that 12 months.
It has been obvious that FSG wished to increase right into a multi-club mannequin since Michael Edwards’ appointment to a senior position throughout the group in March, which incorporates the previous Liverpool government taking oversight of the membership’s soccer operations.
Edwards then appointed Benfica’s Pedro Marques as director of soccer growth, with the 41-year-old seen as an excellent match for FSG’s multi-club ambitions. Marques experiences into Julian Ward, who was appointed as FSG’s technical director in Could and whose remit is to preside over the administration of the soccer operations of any membership added to the group’s steady.
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Bordeaux are one of many greatest golf equipment in France, profitable the title six occasions and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 2009-10, however have endured monetary difficulties in latest seasons.
The membership had been relegated to Ligue 2 after ending on the foot of the desk in 2021-22 and have but to return to the French top-flight, having beforehand spent only one season exterior of the division between 1949 and 2022. Below former Liverpool winger Albert Riera, Bordeaux completed twelfth in Ligue 2 within the 2023-24 season.
(Franck Fife/AFP through Getty Photos)