“The Big Stumbling Block Here…” – Liverpool Owners FSG Look To Spain For Multi-Club Investment | OneFootball

By Sam Coles

Liverpool owners, Fenway Sports Group are reportedly eager to invest in Segunda División side, Málaga. The Spanish side were Champions League quarter-finalists just 12 years ago but now find themselves battling on the brink of relegation to Spain’s third division where they played their football last season.

Málaga haven’t returned to La Liga since being relegated in 2018, but FSG are hoping to change that through their own investment should a deal be reached. However, they may face competition from PSG owners, Qatar Sports Investments, who revealed to The Athletic that they too were keen on a deal with Málaga.

ESPN reported that QSI’s talks with the shareholders of Málaga are “very advanced and progressing well” which may throw a spanner in the FSG works.

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Dan Clubbe spoke to the co-host of the Spanish Segunda show, Liam Bambridge, about FSG’s interest in Málaga and the current state of affairs at the Spanish club.

“The current owner, Abdullah Al Thani, came in and oversaw the glory years in Málaga around about 10 years ago but then it all turned sour. Al Thani is essentially not in charge of the club anymore; he still owns a 51% stake in the club but he is not allowed to do anything. There’s talk that there was a misappropriation of funds of the club to further his own business interests. Ultimately he is still the owner, he still owns a 51% share of the club but the official administrator, José María Muñoz, essentially administers the club on a day-to-day basis.

“I suppose we could look at the City Group’s acquisition of Girona and that happened Girona were in Segunda; it’s a really good, grounding possibility for players, I think in that sense you could send players over there and they would do really well at that level and then you can bring them back and try to fit them in. You’ve got that dual possibility that you can send your promising players over there and also as a business interest it’s clearly a business that can make money.

“The big stumbling block here is Al Thani; he doesn’t seem to want to sell. He seems to be an incredibly stubborn individual despite the fact the fans want him out to the extent that last year when Málaga were playing in the Primera Federación play-offs he offered free travel to Tarragona, which is a long way from Málaga, for all the fans that wanted to go and they all came back instantly and said no way, we don’t want anything to do with you, we’re not interested.

“So, the relationship between fans and owner is completely broken down, they have no trust in him, no interest in him continuing in charge but he seems to be ignoring that. There’s this long-running court case in which he was stripped of his powers four or five years ago now and yet it still hasn’t been resolved.

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“I get the feeling he thinks that sooner or later it will be resolved in his favour but there’s nothing to suggest that it will be so the sensible thing for him to do, I think he spent 36 million euros buying it back in 2010 would be to walk away. He can make a healthy profit, I’m quite sure of that but he doesn’t seem to be inclined to do that and I wonder do the court eventually have the power to take his majority share away from him and then it suddenly becomes very interesting doesn’t it, but he doesn’t seem to think that can happen, I’m not so sure.

“If we come back to the issue of this stadium, which I find fascinating, and how it all fits together. Basically, Málaga’s been chosen as one of the hosts for the 2030 World Cup; the stadiums about to be built and Málaga are about to move into an athletic stadium from the start of the season after next, which is not great for them but of course, at the end of that two-year process, they get a 45,000 seater stadium, crucially, paid for by the local council. How attractive is that to the two investment groups? To essentially be given a brand new stadium, imagine the increased revenue.”

Redmen Reacts

Liam offered some great insight into the situation at Málaga and the benefits of buying the club for FSG. Whether or not Liverpool’s American owners will be future owners of Málaga remains to be seen but it’s a long way off being done if they are to pursue a deal.