Report Claims Qatari Group Not Interested In Purchasing Liverpool

The Qatari Royal Family is reported to not be interested in buying Liverpool despite credible buzz linking the emirate to the club only last week.

Those reports had named separate Qatari and Saudi consortiums as interested in becoming one of the few collectives able to afford the likely £3+ billion it would cost to purchase the Merseysiders.

The Qataris, at least, are now said to be out of the running, with ESPN reporting that Qatar Olympic Committee president Sheikh Jooan Al Thani is not in talks to buy Liverpool.

The likelihood of a full sale of the club had already diminished following reports emerging from the FSG-owned Boston Globe that a minority investor was preferred to an out-and-out buyer.

Furthermore, a serious bid by either the Qataris or the Saudis would likely face legal hurdles due to complications surrounding the ownership of Paris Saint-Germain (Qatar Sports Investment) and Newcastle (Saudi Public Investment Fund) respectively.

Most Saudi buyers capable of stumping up £3-4 billion would ostensibly be influenced (read: controlled) by the Saudi Roya Family, leading to issues passing the infamous FA “fit and proper test” preventing ownership of multiple clubs.

Ditto for the Qataris, who’s ownership of both Liverpool and the French giants would go against UEFA’s rules governing ownership of multiple clubs in its European competitions (although Red Bull seem to have navigated that just fine).

It likely means that even minority ownership by groups from either of these two nations was always a non-starter. The search for a new Liverpool investor goes on.