Liverpool in takeover interest from Ambani

Klopp unfazed by club’s sale talk

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has expressed interest in buying English football club Liverpool FC, The Mirror reported, without saying where it got the information.

The Reliance Industries Ltd. chairman faces competition from other parties from the Middle East and the US, the newspaper said, adding that current owners Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC have been swamped with tentative offers.

Fenway Sports is willing to sell for £4 billion, The Mirror said. Ambani owns the Mumbai Indians cricket team, and also helped set up football’s Super League in India.

Fenway is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to gauge buyer interest in the Premier League club it took over for about £300 million in 2010. GlobalData analyst Conrad Wiacek estimated that Liverpool could fetch more than $5 billion.

Klopp unfazed

Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp insists he won’t fret about talk of Liverpool’s owners selling the Premier League club until things are “not positive”.

Klopp had already responded to the takeover rumours by stressing his commitment to fulfilling a contract that runs until 2026. The German has always had a good relationship with the owners but, while he admits a boost to the club’s finances would be welcome, he sees no reason to concern himself by what happens next at boardroom level. “In the structure we had, we were obviously able to spend money, but we always had to look and say ‘What did we earn?,” Klopp said. “The two biggest transfers we did in the past with Ali (Alisson Becker) and Virg (Virgil van Dijk), we all know how it happened, we got some money from Barcelona and spent it wisely, I would say.”