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AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale has declared the Liverpool model under Fenway Sports Group (FSG) as the model to follow.
The American company led by John Henry bought Liverpool in October 2010, saving the club from administration after the disastrous ownership of George Gillet and Tom Hicks.
They’ve transformed the club over the 15 years since, turning Liverpool into one of the most valuable clubs in the world.
They have done so without being as lavish as some of their rivals in spending.
A recent study by the CIES Football Observatory revealed that Liverpool, under FSG, sits far outside the top ten in the list of football’s biggest transfer spenders of the last decade.
This seeming inability to splash the cash like their rivals has often led to Liverpool fans questioning the ownership.
However, RedBird CEO Gerry Cardinale, owner of Serie A side AC Milan, believes Liverpool are the perfect example of how a club can be transformed.
Cardinale’s RedBird company has a minority share in Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group.
Speaking at a US-based ‘Analytics Conference’, Cardinale admitted that the reason he invested in FSG is because he has so much respect for the owners and the management of Liverpool FC.
“There is a great example of how there has been an evolution in this sense, too, and that is Liverpool,” Cardinale said.
“The reason why I invested in Fenway Sports Group, and it is the only time I am not a majority shareholder but a minority shareholder in a sports-related investment, is because I have so much respect for this ownership and management and what they have done with Liverpool.
“People should take note of the transition they have gone through so as not to miss a single step of how they started with (Jurgen) Klopp, and now they have arrived at (Arne) Slot and made things work the way they did.
“They have managed to find a compromise between the sports side, the business side and the ownership side?
And that is exactly what you should look at and try to replicate elsewhere.”
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