Liverpool in danger of following the Red Bull and CFG route
Liverpool could be the new Red Bull.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal, disseminated by This Is Anfield, indicate that current owners Fenway Sports Group could be persuaded to sell a stake in the club.
Red Ball (not Red Bull, that’s a separate entity) have been set up with the sole purpose of making an acquisition in, or of, a football team.
They are co-owned by Billy Beane, the founder of Moneyball and a Liverpool fan, and they want to buy a stake in the club and convert it to a public company.
Red Ball would then look to buy other clubs and use the same model that Red Bull and CFG have. Red Bull are perhaps more well known than City Football Group, because of the similarities in name between the clubs and their branding.
In July, Red Ball bought a majority in French Ligue 2 side Toulouse and they’ll look to follow a model that has seen proven results across Europe and the States.
Red Bull have clubs in Brazil (Bragantino), America (New York), Austria (Salzburg) and Germany (Leipzig) and often use their outfits as a feeder system until players become good enough to compete in the Bundesliga.
This network is particularly useful when it comes to the issues of work permits. African and Asian players are often signed by Salzburg, where Austrian rules around foreign players are easier to navigate, and developed there before being sold to other sides for profit.
Recently we’ve seen Takumi Minamino go to Liverpool, Hee-chan Hwang and Amadou Haidara to Salzburg and the rise of Patson Daka.
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We could see Liverpool have something similar in place, if Red Ball are successful in their approach. If something like that does go through, we’d have to have an entirely different conversation about the way in which we want this club to be run.