Amit Bhatia has expressed his “huge privilege and excitement” at being part of Liverpool FC’s future following a new minority investment in the club.
Earlier this month, Reds owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) reached a definitive agreement to sell a minority equity stake to 1892 Holdings, a consortium led and managed by Bhatia.
Amit Bhatia will attend Anfield for Liverpool’s first home Premier League game of the season against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Ahead of the fixture, he spoke to Liverpoolfc.com at the club’s offices about the investment, working alongside FSG, and his and 1892 Holdings’ plans for the future.
Amit, welcome to Liverpool Football Club. How does it feel to hear that?
It feels incredible. It feels surreal when I hear those words, obviously an incredibly proud moment for myself, for my family, for our partners. We’re talking about Liverpool Football Club here, right? I mean, we’re talking about the greatest football club in the world. And so to have the ability to be involved in any capacity is a huge privilege and a huge honour.
I’m just the biggest admirer of everything that is associated with this football club, whether it’s the history and the culture, the supporters, the journey of this club, the owners in FSG, the management team at Liverpool. There’s just so much to admire, so much to frankly be in awe of. And so to have the opportunity at this point in time, to hopefully potentially – I want to just be very clear, subject to all kinds of regulatory approvals that we’re going through the process [of] now – but the simple fact that we’ve been potentially welcomed in by FSG to be part of such an incredible football club, a historic football club, an iconic football club like Liverpool, frankly it’s the stuff of dreams. And it is the greatest honour I think that anybody can have.
I also must say that we’ve been very, very lucky that over a period of time we’ve gotten to know the ownership group at Liverpool very well. Mr. John Henry, Mr. Mike Gordon, Tom Werner, Sam Kennedy – all at the FSG level – and then of course more locally here getting to know Billy [Hogan] and Jenny [Beacham] and all. This is the most incredible football club, frankly run by incredible owners and incredible people. And the fact that we, in our own minority position, may have a seat at the table alongside people of such high integrity, such high value… I consider them, frankly, the best owners in sports. And having gotten to know them personally, I consider them people of the highest integrity that always put the interests of the club first – the way that they’ve run it for the last so many years, the successes that they’ve brought.
The opportunity to be involved in a club like this, with people like this, with management like this, with potential in the way that we know that this club has, is only positive thoughts and only positive feelings. And I get it, I understand that with it comes an enormous responsibility to the supporters, an enormous responsibility to make sure that people always feel the club is moving forwards.
But [it’s] important to emphasise that the club remains under the ownership of FSG; we are a minority who have been invited to sit alongside them. And we are here feeling incredibly proud and privileged to have a seat at the table alongside them, subject to regulatory approval.
You also understand supporters. You’ve been around football for such a long time now and you understand what makes them tick – whatever’s going on in their own lives is made better when their football club plays well. So, what about your message to them, to the Liverpool supporters?
Of course it’s an incredibly vast, incredibly passionate supporter base, not just in Liverpool but around the entire world. I am a fan first, my involvement in sport has always been as a fan first.
This club has been around since 1892 and the club will be around long after we’re all gone. For a short period of time, if we were lucky enough to be part of an ownership group that can help support the club for a period of time, then all that we can hope for is that we can bring more success to the club. But more importantly, that we can make the fans even more proud of the football club that they support, that they represent, that shapes their Sunday mornings or their Mondays in the office.
And that’s a huge responsibility. But I think that that’s something I recognise, something that I have interacted with and it’s been very important to me in my heart throughout my involvement in sport.
How involved do you expect to be?
I think again it’s very important to emphasise that we’re going through a regulatory process. That regulatory process is under way and we have to be incredibly respectful of that process. So it’s important to say that, number one. Number two, I think it’s important to be very clear that this club remains under the ownership of FSG. FSG are the decision-makers and this is their ownership. They have invited us and we’re very fortunate to be a partner as a minority alongside them.
And so my involvement really, or our involvement really, would be in any capacity that FSG felt that we could be useful to them. So, subject to regulatory [approval], in any capacity that FSG wants us to be involved, in any way that they think that we can add value for the betterment of the football club, is how we will make ourselves available at all times.
We come from different geographies, we come from different professions, and hopefully with that you bring different experiences and ideas, different thoughts. If we are called upon, if there’s any area that we have this expertise in or that FSG would like to discuss with us, our thoughts or our involvement, we would absolutely be there. We believe that the potential for the football club is still vast ahead of us and we have had some discussions with FSG as to those thoughts.
And hopefully if everything goes well, our association with the club will also be for a very, very long period of time. And so as and when we can see those opportunities and we feel that they’re in the best interests of the football club, as an entire group we’ll come together and try to support in the best way that we think we can. And so that’s very exciting to think about, because as I said, the potential is enormous. And we’re very excited to see what the future holds for us in that regard.
Anfield will play a big part in that. Have you experienced Anfield before on a matchday?
I’ve been very lucky, I have been to Anfield many times. I have been with the away support when I was part of QPR, which was always a fantastic experience. I’ve been to a bunch of home games at Anfield over the last season. I actually also experienced it in a different guise, I was there for the Taylor Swift concert with my daughter.
This weekend will obviously be a bit different. I was very lucky, I got a call about a week or 10 days ago from John Henry, who’s an incredible man, who extended an invite to myself, but not just to me, to my family, to our other partners, to come and attend the match with him on Saturday. And so it’ll be different to attend versus the other ones but hugely exciting.
Your face lights up when you talk about Liverpool, there’s a real deep sense of excitement about what the future might look like and the part that you can play in that?
How can you not be excited? It’s the biggest and the greatest football club in the world. And so to in any way be associated with it, it is the stuff of dreams, right? But it also comes, we know, in time with great responsibilities. And so that responsibility has been shouldered by FSG, we believe, in the most spectacular way over the last 16 years. And so if we as their partners can be involved, help, elevate the club, help the club in any way – and I hope that they see some value in us, which is why they’ve welcomed us to the table – we are ready, willing, champing at the bit and can’t wait to help in any way that we are called upon to help the club. So, incredibly excited, incredibly honoured and very much looking forward to it.
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