Fishburn Hedges

05.08.2010

Few events can catapult a wealthy organisation or individual from the relative obscurity of the business pages into the spotlight of tabloid coverage and populist scrutiny than buying a football club.

As speculation sweeps the airwaves that the Chinese Investment Corporation (CIC) may be in the frame to buy Liverpool Football Club it is impossible not to wonder whether or not this will be a match made in heaven.

The same aims?

It is fascinating to consider investing in a premiership football club in the context of the mission statement that appears on CIC’s website: “Our mission is to seek diligently long-term investments that maximize our returns while maintaining a rigorous approach to managing risk”.  In this context, would CIC’s definition of “maximising returns” be seen as spending what it takes to get back in the top 4, and ultimately win the Premiership? Or would it be judged in more traditional financial terms?  

If the former, then perhaps the wishes of the Chinese and the Kop will be aligned, if not, the honeymoon period could be very short indeed.  As ever with these things, success is far more forgiving than failure and an acquisition followed by a good season would probably give both sides the chance to get to know each other and build relationship without the destructive scrutiny of failure.  But if the deal went ahead and a rocky start to the season followed for whatever reason, it may be difficult for CIC, the Club and the fans to have the time and space to build the relationship that they need.

Opening up a dialogue

One trick that CIC, or any other buyer of LFC, should not miss is to build a direct and early relationship with fans through listening to them and carefully engaging on Twitter, Facebook and the chat rooms on the endless official and unofficial websites associated with the club.

I hope the deal goes ahead simply because it will be so fascinating to see how it unfolds.

Posted by Fiona Thorne