For some Liverpool supporters, the desire to slag off the owners will be there, irrespective of who it is that takes on that particularly onerous task. Fenway Sports Group, for example, have overseen an incredible period of growth for the Reds, taking us from being also-rans to enjoying a period of remarkable success, yet you will still see #FSGOUT on social media from time to time.
One potential owner that will surely have brought out the ire of the majority of supporters is Elon Musk, who was rumoured to be keen on buying the club a few years ago. The question is, what was that all about?
What Happened
The passing of time is a curious thing. If you ask the majority of people when it was that Elon Musk was linked with buying Liverpool Football Club, you would doubtless be told that it was a few years ago, coming during the period of time when FSG were considering a sale of the Reds. In actual fact, the news leaked in the January of this year, thanks to his father saying that the billionaire would be keen on taking ownership of the club if the possibility of doing so came about. In the May of 2024, Forbes valued Liverpool as the fourth most valuable football club on the planet, limiting the possible buyers.
@l.f.ckopites Elon Musk is interested in buying Liverpool FC? 😳 “I can’t comment on that, they’ll raise the price!!” #ynwa #LFC #LiverpoolFC #EPL #PremierLeague #elonmusk ♬ original sound – Lfc Kopites
Given the fact that the £4.3 billion valuation put on the Reds at the time amounts to around 1% of Musk’s net worth, it is fair to say that there wouldn’t be a large number of buyers who could enter the conversation to take ownership of the club. The claims from Errol Musk that his son would be interested in buying Liverpool came during an interview with Times Radio when he said, “Oh yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s buying it. He would like to, yes, obviously. Anybody would want to – so would I.” Whilst he might be interested in buying it, it is unlikely the majority of Liverpool supporters would welcome such a sale.
Why Liverpool?
The obvious question that a lot of people would ask is why Elon Musk would be interested in buying Liverpool in the first place. The South African appeared to do a Nazi salute during the inauguration of Donald Trump for his second term as President of the United States of America, which flies in the face of how most Liverpool supporters view the ethics of the football club. Musk Senior did shed some light on the links, though, confirming that his son’s grandmother ‘was born in Liverpool’. The Musks still have family in the city, ‘so we are attached to Liverpool’, he said.
WEDNESDAY 8-1-25 SPORT ….. MUSK BE KIDDING ……YOU’LL NEVER WALK ELON. BILLIONAIRE MUSK WANTS TO BUY LIVERPOOL, SAYS FATHER …..GEORDIE ROAR ….FLASH GORDON HAS TOON IN DREAMLAND ….ANGE’S ATTACKING MOVE ….I’M TOO OLD TO BACK DOWN …..McKIBBIN IN LIV GOLF SHOCK..#BuyANewspaper
— DIAMONDS NEWSAGENTS BALLYMENA (@diamondsnews.bsky.social) 8 January 2025 at 06:42
Then there is the likelihood of the club’s valuation only going up in the years that are to come. There will be a push towards football clubs taking ownership of their own television rights in the not-too-distant future, which will improve the amount of money brought in by one of the biggest sides on the planet. Musk might not be someone that most Scousers can take to heart for numerous reasons, but he is someone who is always on the lookout to increase his personal fortune wherever possible. The approval of a $1 trillion pay package for him from the Tesla shareholders will only increase that.
How it Might Have Looked
There is a world in which Elon Musk decides to renew his interest in buying Liverpool. Those of us that would be directly opposed to the club being sold to him shouldn’t drop our guard on that front. The question is, though, how might things have looked if he had been successful in any attempt to take over the Reds? The reality is that the fact that he is such a controversial figure, widely disliked by those on the political left, would not cause the Premier League to stop him from buying the club on account of a failure to pass the Owners and Directors Test, so thinking about what might happen is only natural.
It is fair to say that there would have been no shortage of funds available for Liverpool to spend if the world’s richest man had taken over the club in January. Rumours suggest that Musk likes both Milos Kerkez, who the Reds bought this summer, and Viktor Gyökeres, who ended up at Arsenal. Whilst the man himself joked on Twitter about buying Manchester United back in 2022, the suggestion is that he does at least pay more than a passing interest in the sport. Given how much he has interfered with Twitter since buying it, including changing its name to the nonsensical ‘X’, it’s difficult to see him keeping his nose out of the running of the Reds.
