CHINA TOPIX

12/22/2024 09:31:40 pm

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China Football: Liverpool rejects buyout offer of Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp

(Photo : Getty Images) Liverpool FC owners Fenway Sports Group recently turned down a buyout offer from Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian, China’s 47th richest man, as the company has no plans of selling their majority stake in the English Premier League club.

Liverpool FC owners Fenway Sports Group recently turned down a buyout offer from Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian, China's 47th richest man, as the company has no plans of selling their majority stake in the English Premier League club.

However, 90min reported that although the Fenway Sports Group is not keen on selling the team, "there are suggestions that the consortium are looking at methods of driving investment into the football club" as the Reds are "on the verge of a new era under manager Jürgen Klopp, following the German's decision to pen a stunning new six-year-deal with the club, keeping him at Anfield until 2022".

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The 49-year-old bench tactician is said to be planning a revitalization of the team's youth academy as one way of improving the club for the long term and it will need adequate financial support to pull off.

Principal owner John W. Henry is reportedly fully committed to the idea of "returning the club to its former glories, with the development of academy graduates a big part of the club's heritage", the report noted.

Liu, a Chinese businessman and art collector who accumulated his fortune thru stock trading, real estate, and pharmaceuticals investments, said to have submitted a bid that the Liverpool ownership thought was "significantly under value".

Liu is also well-known for being eccentric and spending his wealth on interesting items. The ex-taxi driver bought a 15th century Ming Dynasty bowl for £21 million and then took a photo of himself drinking tea from it, Kop Talk reported. He also went half naked to mimic a cross-legged bronze statue he purchased for £3 million.

Moreover, Liu notoriously shelled out £113 million for Amedeo Modigliani "reclining nude" painting.

An unknown source from the Reds also said that they "did not respond because the club is not for sale".

Henry's long term commitment to the club is said to be demonstrated by the long term signing of Klopp and his assistants Zeljko Buvac and Peter Krawietz, which means he is trusting that the German mentor could lead Liverpool back to its lofty place not only in the Premier League but in the whole of Europe.

The Fenway Sports Group had recently invested £114 million in the renovation and expansion of the Anfield, Liverpool's home football stadium, with the initial phase of construction set to be done in January next year.

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