FSG line up potential takeover of Coutinho’s former side as multi-club model plans step up – report

Liverpool owners FSG made it clear earlier this year that they’re pursuing a multi-club ownership model, and those plans appear to have stepped up in recent days.

According to Globo Esporte, LFC’s majority owners are ‘probing’ the possibility of buying out the stake of American firm 777 Partners – who are currently in the midst of a potential takeover at Everton – at Brazilian club Vasco da Gama.

With the private investment company very much at risk of bankruptcy, and their majority owner the subject of a lawsuit from the Rio de Janeiro-based outfit, prospective investors are circling like sharks, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Vasco da Gama was the club where a certain Philippe Coutinho flourished in the academy ranks to earn a transfer to Inter Milan in 2008, being loaned back to the Brazilian outfit for two years before embarking on his career in Europe.

They’ve been champions of their country four times and reached the final of the Club World Championship in 2000, but have lost four of their opening six matches of the current league campaign and languish in 13th place in Brasileiro Serie A.

Multi-club ownership offers an opportunity for formal partnerships to be forged which can facilitate advantageours recruitment of under-the-radar talent, along with an establish pathway for players to benefit from regular game-time on loan.

However, the model is a controversial one, with supporters of teams who effectively feed into one overarching superpower often scorned at being viewed as ‘feeder clubs’ for an elite outfit and seeing a part of their unique identity being eroded.

It’s an issue which is bound to polarise opinion, but in FSG’s case, it seems clear that it’s something they want to pursue. If they end up completing a takeover of Vasco da Gama, we await with interest the effect that it might have on Liverpool, in the hope that the Brazilian side retains its sense of identity.